Potoooooooo
Contributor
http://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?p=5027917#post5027917
Got a pecker made-a cigarettes
And eight dead wives
My ass is full of soup
—Opening lyrics of “Squirrel House Christmas,”
Clemm Dogderbek, c. 1926
The song-story tradition of North America’s “hobos” (a slang term that combines the words “hope” and “bowl of beans given to me for free by a woman who then initiated intercourse”) is rich and worthy of deep study. The above lyrics, recorded by traveling archivists, are a sterling example.
Clemm sings of a “Squirrel House Christmas,” which is a hobo-only holiday during which a group of hobos— or a single tramp—would ingest his body weight in alcohol and attempt to climb a tree (“squirrel house”) and throw pinecones at pedestrians (“Christmasing”). The vivid description of Clemm’s reproductive organ as being composed of cigarettes has a playful origin, since many hobos would trade a glimpse of another hobo’s penis for a single cigarette. Since Clemm uses the plural term for “cigarette,” he is boasting that he either
a) has a large penis (and can thus demand a higher penis-view-to-cigarette ratio) or
b) receives many requests from other hobos to view it.
If b is the actual truth, then Clemm is further insinuating that his penis is free of the usual “summer plums” (chancres), “tuft tigers” (pubic lice), or “yipe stripes” (bruises brought about by beatings from railyard bulls or, more often than not, punching one’s own penis from sheer boredom).
“Eight dead wives” is not as morbid or violent a term as it first appears.
A “live wife” is a slang term for any debt owed to a fellow hobo. Since many hobos were forced to repay debts with sexual favors (“wifing”), Clemm is saying that he’s paid off eight recent debts (“eight dead wives”) and is feeling victorious (“my ass is full of soup”).
Compare the rollicking lyrics of “Squirrel House Christmas” with the more elliptical, tone-poem quality of “Toenail” Timmy Trimblish’s “Springtime”:
Bug-dick, bug-dick
Oatmeal pants
Salami whore’s twat box
Fill it up with ants
Dead mouse pecker puppet
Wave it at a church
Eat a peck of pickle berries
Then shit
Whereas Clemm’s song is comical and boasting in nature, Toenail evokes a thoughtful, reflective quality.
Spring is a time of renewal in nature, and that goes doubly for hobos. One of the first signs of spring is bees, traveling from flower to flower as they gather nectar and unwittingly pollinate a summer’s worth of blooms. It is a sight that inspires poetic reveries—dreamy, hopeful inner vistas that remind us we are all, great and small, connected to the diurnal cycle.
“Bug-dicking” is a hobo term for this process. Note this excerpt from the rarely performed play Shoebox Serenade:
LITTLE GIRL: Look at the bumblebee on the pretty flower!
[“Mudtoe” Simmons emerges from a row of bramble bushes, with several bleeding cuts on his exposed belly.]
MUDTOE: That bug’s dicking the flower in the petal-pussy! Bug-dicking!
MOTHER: Get away from my child!
“Oatmeal pants” is a clever bit of “hobo code” and actually means “short-sleeved shirt.” Hobos were forever afraid of people asking precisely what they had in their pants, so they’d refer to any trousers they might be wearing as a “coconut shirt” (“coconut” = “white”) and any shirt as “pants.” “Oatmeal” is hobo rhyming slang for the color blue.* Thus the lyric “oatmeal pants” is a way of saying, “I’m wearing a blue shirt, and there’s no reason for you to take any interest in what may or may not be in my trousers.”
“Salami whore’s twat box” needs no explanation.
“Fill it up with ants” is a term meaning “get some soup started” or, more generally, “begin preparations for dinner.” Trimblish has secured the company of a young lady and is about to make some dinner—possibly barley or millet in warm water, a celebratory dish for hobos. One can imagine Trimblish’s quiet joy as he fills an empty fireman’s helmet with sun-warmed water from a poorly guarded dog dish, slowly digging the millet or barley grains from his pocket (his “coconut shirt” subterfuge has paid off!) while, nearby, his companion gnaws lustily on her salami with her remaining strong molars. Hobos could be crass, but they never lacked sentiment.
“Dead mouse pecker puppet” also needs little explanation, except in the way of social function. Once the deboned and scraped-clean mouse carcass was fitted over a hobo’s reproductive member, he would entertain other hobos with “puppet theater”—usually retelling various hobo folktales. The “mouse puppet” would play various roles, such as:
“Half-Gone” Johnny Strong in “Snoozin’ on the Tracks”
“Fist-Width” Petey Fishbein in “Jailhouse Prom”
“The Bludge” in “Stool Pit”
Performing the same known-by-all folktales for other hobos (who would often interject random, personal embellishments or, more often than not, try to box the mouse puppet) could become tiresome. Where to find a new, unversed audience who could delight in these whimsical tales with the innocence of a child? Where could a large group of people be found gathered together? The answer can be found in the lyric “Wave it at a church.”
“Pickle berries” are pencil erasers.
Got a pecker made-a cigarettes
And eight dead wives
My ass is full of soup
—Opening lyrics of “Squirrel House Christmas,”
Clemm Dogderbek, c. 1926
The song-story tradition of North America’s “hobos” (a slang term that combines the words “hope” and “bowl of beans given to me for free by a woman who then initiated intercourse”) is rich and worthy of deep study. The above lyrics, recorded by traveling archivists, are a sterling example.
Clemm sings of a “Squirrel House Christmas,” which is a hobo-only holiday during which a group of hobos— or a single tramp—would ingest his body weight in alcohol and attempt to climb a tree (“squirrel house”) and throw pinecones at pedestrians (“Christmasing”). The vivid description of Clemm’s reproductive organ as being composed of cigarettes has a playful origin, since many hobos would trade a glimpse of another hobo’s penis for a single cigarette. Since Clemm uses the plural term for “cigarette,” he is boasting that he either
a) has a large penis (and can thus demand a higher penis-view-to-cigarette ratio) or
b) receives many requests from other hobos to view it.
If b is the actual truth, then Clemm is further insinuating that his penis is free of the usual “summer plums” (chancres), “tuft tigers” (pubic lice), or “yipe stripes” (bruises brought about by beatings from railyard bulls or, more often than not, punching one’s own penis from sheer boredom).
“Eight dead wives” is not as morbid or violent a term as it first appears.
A “live wife” is a slang term for any debt owed to a fellow hobo. Since many hobos were forced to repay debts with sexual favors (“wifing”), Clemm is saying that he’s paid off eight recent debts (“eight dead wives”) and is feeling victorious (“my ass is full of soup”).
Compare the rollicking lyrics of “Squirrel House Christmas” with the more elliptical, tone-poem quality of “Toenail” Timmy Trimblish’s “Springtime”:
Bug-dick, bug-dick
Oatmeal pants
Salami whore’s twat box
Fill it up with ants
Dead mouse pecker puppet
Wave it at a church
Eat a peck of pickle berries
Then shit
Whereas Clemm’s song is comical and boasting in nature, Toenail evokes a thoughtful, reflective quality.
Spring is a time of renewal in nature, and that goes doubly for hobos. One of the first signs of spring is bees, traveling from flower to flower as they gather nectar and unwittingly pollinate a summer’s worth of blooms. It is a sight that inspires poetic reveries—dreamy, hopeful inner vistas that remind us we are all, great and small, connected to the diurnal cycle.
“Bug-dicking” is a hobo term for this process. Note this excerpt from the rarely performed play Shoebox Serenade:
LITTLE GIRL: Look at the bumblebee on the pretty flower!
[“Mudtoe” Simmons emerges from a row of bramble bushes, with several bleeding cuts on his exposed belly.]
MUDTOE: That bug’s dicking the flower in the petal-pussy! Bug-dicking!
MOTHER: Get away from my child!
“Oatmeal pants” is a clever bit of “hobo code” and actually means “short-sleeved shirt.” Hobos were forever afraid of people asking precisely what they had in their pants, so they’d refer to any trousers they might be wearing as a “coconut shirt” (“coconut” = “white”) and any shirt as “pants.” “Oatmeal” is hobo rhyming slang for the color blue.* Thus the lyric “oatmeal pants” is a way of saying, “I’m wearing a blue shirt, and there’s no reason for you to take any interest in what may or may not be in my trousers.”
“Salami whore’s twat box” needs no explanation.
“Fill it up with ants” is a term meaning “get some soup started” or, more generally, “begin preparations for dinner.” Trimblish has secured the company of a young lady and is about to make some dinner—possibly barley or millet in warm water, a celebratory dish for hobos. One can imagine Trimblish’s quiet joy as he fills an empty fireman’s helmet with sun-warmed water from a poorly guarded dog dish, slowly digging the millet or barley grains from his pocket (his “coconut shirt” subterfuge has paid off!) while, nearby, his companion gnaws lustily on her salami with her remaining strong molars. Hobos could be crass, but they never lacked sentiment.
“Dead mouse pecker puppet” also needs little explanation, except in the way of social function. Once the deboned and scraped-clean mouse carcass was fitted over a hobo’s reproductive member, he would entertain other hobos with “puppet theater”—usually retelling various hobo folktales. The “mouse puppet” would play various roles, such as:
“Half-Gone” Johnny Strong in “Snoozin’ on the Tracks”
“Fist-Width” Petey Fishbein in “Jailhouse Prom”
“The Bludge” in “Stool Pit”
Performing the same known-by-all folktales for other hobos (who would often interject random, personal embellishments or, more often than not, try to box the mouse puppet) could become tiresome. Where to find a new, unversed audience who could delight in these whimsical tales with the innocence of a child? Where could a large group of people be found gathered together? The answer can be found in the lyric “Wave it at a church.”
“Pickle berries” are pencil erasers.
