Put your dungarees on and go get some spuckies and tonic!
November 17, 2014 10:54 AM Subscribe
A Boston Globe reporter talks to his dad about some old-school Boston-area colloquialisms.
Bubbler. Or to be more precise, bubblah, is one I've only ever heard out of Bostonian mouths.
posted by jonmc at 11:09 AM on November 17, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by jonmc at 11:09 AM on November 17, 2014 [3 favorites]
Old guy is losing it. He referred to the icebox as a fridgerator.
posted by Gungho at 11:13 AM on November 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Gungho at 11:13 AM on November 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
You can't just blindly say that dinner = supper. Supper is the evening meal, lunch is the noon meal, and dinner is the bigger meal.
I was so confused when I visited one of my friends as a kid and his mom asked what I wanted for dinner when I hadn't even had lunch yet
posted by ckape at 11:13 AM on November 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
I was so confused when I visited one of my friends as a kid and his mom asked what I wanted for dinner when I hadn't even had lunch yet
posted by ckape at 11:13 AM on November 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
I, too, probably have some hoodsies in the icebox right now (not the alternate definition, mind you).
(Also, somehow I never caught "spuckies"; used to see a place called that in Dorchester, never knew what it meant, assumed it was someone's name and the sign was missing an apostrophe)
posted by tocts at 11:16 AM on November 17, 2014
(Also, somehow I never caught "spuckies"; used to see a place called that in Dorchester, never knew what it meant, assumed it was someone's name and the sign was missing an apostrophe)
posted by tocts at 11:16 AM on November 17, 2014
No shit, leotrotsky? I've known a few Wisconsinites and never heard them say it.
posted by jonmc at 11:17 AM on November 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by jonmc at 11:17 AM on November 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
You won't hear "spuckies" used much outside of Southie.
posted by briank at 11:22 AM on November 17, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by briank at 11:22 AM on November 17, 2014 [2 favorites]
Spuckies is limited to South Boston and the Andrew Square area of Dorchester. I think the old man was a bit embarrassed to say it but the term Hoodsie Cups when referring to teen aged girls was in reference to their, ahem , cup size.
posted by Gungho at 11:22 AM on November 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Gungho at 11:22 AM on November 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
I, too, am skeptical that one can go into a Boston restaurant and get a Coke by ordering a tonic.
posted by Think_Long at 11:25 AM on November 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Think_Long at 11:25 AM on November 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
Spuckies is limited to South Boston and the Andrew Square area of Dorchester.
Oddly, the place I was thinking of is "Spukies 'n Pizza", which is down Dot Ave right before it crosses the river into Milton. I used to pass it on occasion when I lived on Popes Hill.
posted by tocts at 11:32 AM on November 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
Oddly, the place I was thinking of is "Spukies 'n Pizza", which is down Dot Ave right before it crosses the river into Milton. I used to pass it on occasion when I lived on Popes Hill.
posted by tocts at 11:32 AM on November 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
I, too, am skeptical that one can go into a Boston restaurant and get a Coke by ordering a tonic.
I'm sure it's no longer universal, but if you went into any "local" (i.e. nieghborhood) place, they'd know exactly what you meant by "tonic".
posted by briank at 11:34 AM on November 17, 2014 [4 favorites]
I'm sure it's no longer universal, but if you went into any "local" (i.e. nieghborhood) place, they'd know exactly what you meant by "tonic".
posted by briank at 11:34 AM on November 17, 2014 [4 favorites]
Parlor is also not strictly Boston. It's just old-school. My NJ grandmas used to say parlor for living room. Plenty of non-Boston people say hamburger instead of ground-beef as well.
Isn't "bubbler" also a Rhode Island thing?
posted by delicious-luncheon at 11:39 AM on November 17, 2014
Isn't "bubbler" also a Rhode Island thing?
posted by delicious-luncheon at 11:39 AM on November 17, 2014
Tonic is such the better word.
posted by Diablevert at 11:42 AM on November 17, 2014
posted by Diablevert at 11:42 AM on November 17, 2014
None of those terms are dying, with the possible exception of spuckie. I used the terms clicker, hoodsie and, get this, turkey hamburg, for a package of ground turkey, just last night. I'm around 50 miles south of Boston, and deep into the territory of even stranger Rhode Island colloquialisms (where the frappe turns into a cabinet.)
posted by Slap*Happy at 11:44 AM on November 17, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by Slap*Happy at 11:44 AM on November 17, 2014 [2 favorites]
Parlor used to be more common, but it gradually shifted to living room on account of all of the dead bodies.
posted by ckape at 11:45 AM on November 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by ckape at 11:45 AM on November 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
None of those terms are dying
Both my nanas said tonic and dungarees; my mother uses them occasionally, my siblings and I don't.
posted by Diablevert at 11:47 AM on November 17, 2014
Born and raised just north of Boston and this is the first time I have heard the word 'spuckie'. We would say 'sub' in my neck of the woods. Yes, we used to make 'packie runs' for subs - as they were sold at the package store near my house. And we would buy tonic because we were too young to buy the other stuff. Often dessert was a 'Hoodsie'. Hood's delivered our milk until I was about 10 or so and we bought them from the milkman. I never heard girls referred to by that name - ever. And yes, as someone pointed out, there is no first 'r' in refrigerator here. Supper was the big meal of the day, unless it was on Sunday and that was 'dinner' - at around 1-2 PM. My family keeps that tradition, mostly. There is a slight difference though in the Boston accent and how we used to speak up here on the North Shore. When I lived in Europe, other Americans would ask if I was from New Jersey. Unfortunately, these accents or dialects, I guess is the term now, are dying out. I know some people find them grating, but culture and history is being lost and replaced with standard American vanilla accent. I'll stop now because I could probably go on for hours about this.
posted by McMillan's Other Wife at 11:50 AM on November 17, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by McMillan's Other Wife at 11:50 AM on November 17, 2014 [2 favorites]
Raised in North Texas. Clicker, supper, hamburger, icebox, and even dungarees (though, I think, specifically for work jeans) are still common enough usage.
Judging from this thread in general it sounds like the linguists this guy has been talking to are falling down on the job.
posted by cmoj at 12:00 PM on November 17, 2014
Judging from this thread in general it sounds like the linguists this guy has been talking to are falling down on the job.
posted by cmoj at 12:00 PM on November 17, 2014
Ya think those ah weeid werds, ya divya? Mush, come up to Newton where I grew up.
posted by slkinsey at 12:01 PM on November 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by slkinsey at 12:01 PM on November 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
No shit, leotrotsky? I've known a few Wisconsinites and never heard them say it.
Not Wisconsinite. Sconnie. Also, it seems to be peculiar to the SE part of the state - Milwaukee, Green Bay, Appleton/Oshkosh/Fondy. I didn't hear it so much from northern or western Sconnies.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 12:01 PM on November 17, 2014
Not Wisconsinite. Sconnie. Also, it seems to be peculiar to the SE part of the state - Milwaukee, Green Bay, Appleton/Oshkosh/Fondy. I didn't hear it so much from northern or western Sconnies.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 12:01 PM on November 17, 2014
You can't just blindly say that dinner = supper. Supper is the evening meal, lunch is the noon meal, and dinner is the bigger meal.
I was so confused when I visited one of my friends as a kid and his mom asked what I wanted for dinner when I hadn't even had lunch yet
Conversely, while always knowing that there are people who make the distinction between the two but rarely encountering them, the only way to find identify them is either by noticing the pattern of two different meals being referenced over time, or most often, when some mix-up has arisen from the misunderstanding.
I grew up in southwestern PA, and other than a few rare exceptions, the words were interchangeable.
posted by chambers at 1:13 PM on November 17, 2014
I was so confused when I visited one of my friends as a kid and his mom asked what I wanted for dinner when I hadn't even had lunch yet
Conversely, while always knowing that there are people who make the distinction between the two but rarely encountering them, the only way to find identify them is either by noticing the pattern of two different meals being referenced over time, or most often, when some mix-up has arisen from the misunderstanding.
I grew up in southwestern PA, and other than a few rare exceptions, the words were interchangeable.
posted by chambers at 1:13 PM on November 17, 2014
Thanks for sharing this. Born in Dot, raised in Southie and Quincy. In my high school "Hoodsie" had the specific meaning of a freshman girl who dated senior or junior boys. Heading back to Boston from my exile in Seattle next week for Thanksgiving. I miss my native tongue...
Dungarees were always called Dungies in my neighborhood. There were a lot of those -ie words. In addition to Spuckies, there was the Packie (liquor store), Morgie's (specifically the Goodwill, but really any thrift store), and the Druggie (CVS). The last one might have just been me and my extended family (I found that there are a bunch of words like that--including "glinkles" which was the word we used to describe the little particles you find on a carpet that hasn't been vacuum in a week or so).
One night about 20 years ago I was walking home from a bar to my apartment in Somerville was called a "Bahnie" by some high school kids. It made me laugh because that wasn't a term we used growing up in my neighborhood, but I knew what it meant. When I stopped and thought about it, I realized with my UMass degree and job in publishing, I was indistinguishable from a Bahnie.
That Globe reporter would also be called a Bahnie if people still use the epithet, I'm sure. It was sweet to see his dad didn't seem to be at all upset that his son had lost the accent and the lingo. You could see the affection each had for the other. And he didn't call him a Bahnie.
posted by Cassford at 1:14 PM on November 17, 2014
Dungarees were always called Dungies in my neighborhood. There were a lot of those -ie words. In addition to Spuckies, there was the Packie (liquor store), Morgie's (specifically the Goodwill, but really any thrift store), and the Druggie (CVS). The last one might have just been me and my extended family (I found that there are a bunch of words like that--including "glinkles" which was the word we used to describe the little particles you find on a carpet that hasn't been vacuum in a week or so).
One night about 20 years ago I was walking home from a bar to my apartment in Somerville was called a "Bahnie" by some high school kids. It made me laugh because that wasn't a term we used growing up in my neighborhood, but I knew what it meant. When I stopped and thought about it, I realized with my UMass degree and job in publishing, I was indistinguishable from a Bahnie.
That Globe reporter would also be called a Bahnie if people still use the epithet, I'm sure. It was sweet to see his dad didn't seem to be at all upset that his son had lost the accent and the lingo. You could see the affection each had for the other. And he didn't call him a Bahnie.
posted by Cassford at 1:14 PM on November 17, 2014
Oddly, the place I was thinking of is "Spukies 'n Pizza", which is down Dot Ave
In the day Dot. Ave. was really just an extension of Southie. Today, not so much.
posted by Gungho at 1:41 PM on November 17, 2014
In the day Dot. Ave. was really just an extension of Southie. Today, not so much.
posted by Gungho at 1:41 PM on November 17, 2014
Chinese/Peking ravioli ---> potstickers. This confused and dismayed me to no end (I imagined it was chef boyardee with soy sauce) when I moved to the Boston suburbs. Apparently in the late 1950's a proprietor of a Chinese restaurant figured it was the most straightforward way to explain a dumpling to the heavily Italian neighborhood in which she had opened up shop.
posted by permiechickie at 1:55 PM on November 17, 2014
posted by permiechickie at 1:55 PM on November 17, 2014
I miss Superettes.
Described a guy here at work as a Soap, got an odd look.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 2:04 PM on November 17, 2014
Described a guy here at work as a Soap, got an odd look.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 2:04 PM on November 17, 2014
Please find me this magical place in Boston where a sub is called a spuckie. I'm past my prime and I have never heard the term employed outside of internet discussion forums. And even so, it was always a shady reference.
Blouser, on the other hand, is a term commonly employed in and around a barroom named Stats during the weekend mating hours.
posted by jsavimbi at 2:04 PM on November 17, 2014
Blouser, on the other hand, is a term commonly employed in and around a barroom named Stats during the weekend mating hours.
posted by jsavimbi at 2:04 PM on November 17, 2014
I think both Billy (Baker) Sr and son are good folk. I am in my early 50s and still use clicker, dungarees and a few others. I do not think they are all regional as much as generational. Just last week I read about the difference between dungarees and jeans, but I am too old to remember although I think it had something to do with when the dye was added, before weaving or after. I am from NY and did not say tonic, but I could walk into a diner and ask for a soda and the person would ask if coke was ok.
I love how Billy Sr signs off by saying now get out of my house which I suppose is the southie equivalent to get offa my lawn.
posted by 724A at 2:06 PM on November 17, 2014
I love how Billy Sr signs off by saying now get out of my house which I suppose is the southie equivalent to get offa my lawn.
posted by 724A at 2:06 PM on November 17, 2014
Spuckie I only ever heard in a "here's a funny word people use for subs!" sense - never heard it fired in anger, so to speak. But when we moved to Massachusetts when I was in second grade, in 1981, "grinder" for submarine sandwich was terribly perplexing to me.
posted by dirtdirt at 2:06 PM on November 17, 2014
posted by dirtdirt at 2:06 PM on November 17, 2014
Potstickers are a commercial product that comes in a bag.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 2:07 PM on November 17, 2014
posted by Kirth Gerson at 2:07 PM on November 17, 2014
Billy Baker did a more recent piece with his often-hilarious dad about a "Boston Rules" class to help people lose their Boston accents with the use of a dog clicker whenever a word is mispronounced.
"Spawts?" click
"Spawts!" click
"SPAWWWWTS." clickclickclick
posted by kinetic at 3:24 PM on November 17, 2014 [3 favorites]
"Spawts?" click
"Spawts!" click
"SPAWWWWTS." clickclickclick
posted by kinetic at 3:24 PM on November 17, 2014 [3 favorites]
Morgie's (specifically the Goodwill, but really any thrift store)
OMG. You just helped me mentally connect a phrase that my mom (Brockton born and raised) has used my entire life, and has always baffled me. She tends to keep old clothes and bedding (occasionally furniture), and at some point asks for help to bring it down to donate it. She always talks about taking it down to "Morgan Memorial", despite that never being anything like the name of where it's going.
Mind. Blown.
posted by tocts at 3:30 PM on November 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
OMG. You just helped me mentally connect a phrase that my mom (Brockton born and raised) has used my entire life, and has always baffled me. She tends to keep old clothes and bedding (occasionally furniture), and at some point asks for help to bring it down to donate it. She always talks about taking it down to "Morgan Memorial", despite that never being anything like the name of where it's going.
Mind. Blown.
posted by tocts at 3:30 PM on November 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
"Spawts?" click
Sweet, he says "Now get the hell out of my house" every time? I would watch more of these.
posted by A dead Quaker at 4:24 PM on November 17, 2014 [2 favorites]
Sweet, he says "Now get the hell out of my house" every time? I would watch more of these.
posted by A dead Quaker at 4:24 PM on November 17, 2014 [2 favorites]
Billy Baker Jr. and his dad, Billy Baker Sr. should get their own tv show.
Billy Sr. takes on Siri.
Billy Sr. explains the "My lawn chair, my pahking spot," law of shovelling and saving your spot in Southie. Move a cone at your own risk.
posted by kinetic at 4:30 PM on November 17, 2014
Billy Sr. takes on Siri.
Billy Sr. explains the "My lawn chair, my pahking spot," law of shovelling and saving your spot in Southie. Move a cone at your own risk.
posted by kinetic at 4:30 PM on November 17, 2014
Not Wisconsinite. Sconnie.
I never heard that term before hearing about the apparel store.
Bubbler is something I know I heard and used growing up but -- maybe partly because they're sort of disappearing generally -- isn't one I remember hearing in a while. But yes, when I've seen maps of its usage it's been confined to the SE corner of the state, but then, so is half the population of Wisconsin.
dungarees isn't a Boston-area colloquialism
True, but lacking an actual dialect map for this one, Google Trends suggests that Boston is one of the metros where as a search term it remains commonly used. (It's interesting that when you Google Lee seems to be the brand most associated with the term but it is primarily an invisible SEO-type keyword, just one that magically brings up Lee products. Sales of Lee may influence the usage to some extent.)
posted by dhartung at 4:56 PM on November 17, 2014
I never heard that term before hearing about the apparel store.
Bubbler is something I know I heard and used growing up but -- maybe partly because they're sort of disappearing generally -- isn't one I remember hearing in a while. But yes, when I've seen maps of its usage it's been confined to the SE corner of the state, but then, so is half the population of Wisconsin.
dungarees isn't a Boston-area colloquialism
True, but lacking an actual dialect map for this one, Google Trends suggests that Boston is one of the metros where as a search term it remains commonly used. (It's interesting that when you Google Lee seems to be the brand most associated with the term but it is primarily an invisible SEO-type keyword, just one that magically brings up Lee products. Sales of Lee may influence the usage to some extent.)
posted by dhartung at 4:56 PM on November 17, 2014
Lee seems to be the brand most associated with the term but it is primarily an invisible SEO-type keyword
From 1998–the mid 2000s, they were specifically identifying their product as dungarees, in their "Lee Dungarees: Can't Bust 'Em" campaign, featuring the creepy lil' Buddy Lee doll.
posted by mumkin at 6:08 PM on November 17, 2014
From 1998–the mid 2000s, they were specifically identifying their product as dungarees, in their "Lee Dungarees: Can't Bust 'Em" campaign, featuring the creepy lil' Buddy Lee doll.
posted by mumkin at 6:08 PM on November 17, 2014
Not Wisconsinite. Sconnie.
> I never heard that term before hearing about the apparel store.
I used to hear it in MN, it's kinda mildy-derogatory, a minnesota-nice diss term. Maybe a step up from 'cheesehead', or maybe not.
posted by hap_hazard at 6:18 PM on November 17, 2014
> I never heard that term before hearing about the apparel store.
I used to hear it in MN, it's kinda mildy-derogatory, a minnesota-nice diss term. Maybe a step up from 'cheesehead', or maybe not.
posted by hap_hazard at 6:18 PM on November 17, 2014
Terrific! I grew up in Mass and am a little sad that I have (mostly) lost the accent. My family did/ does use a lot of regional terms still: tonic, clicker, bubbler, pocketbook (for purse/handbag: regional or just old fashioned?). Billy Baker Sr sounds like my dad.
posted by maryrussell at 6:43 PM on November 17, 2014
posted by maryrussell at 6:43 PM on November 17, 2014
Pocketbook also is something older NJ relatives used to say (though more like "pockabook") so, like parlor, I think it's just old-school and not regional.
posted by delicious-luncheon at 7:22 PM on November 17, 2014
posted by delicious-luncheon at 7:22 PM on November 17, 2014
Mush, come up to Newton where I grew up.Yunt!
posted by dfan at 7:38 PM on November 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
I also grew up in NJ saying "pocketbook." Now it sounds like some new model of the Kindle.
I understood from inference what a "Hoodsie cup" was right away, from memories of Dixie cups.
posted by nev at 7:44 PM on November 17, 2014
I understood from inference what a "Hoodsie cup" was right away, from memories of Dixie cups.
posted by nev at 7:44 PM on November 17, 2014
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posted by leotrotsky at 10:57 AM on November 17, 2014 [6 favorites]