Terms Which Have Disappeared

[tonyb]

I still hear the phrase used in expressions such as "it's our bread and butter," meaning our mainstay, the thing that keeps the doors open, our day-in, day-out business. It's a variation on the "puts bread on the table" expression.

 

[Fading Fast]

Tonyb, good catch - the phrase has two distinct meanings. Funny that I never thought of that. The one you point out is definitely the more popular one.

 

[Stearmen]

I have recently heard two terms in TV and song that I have not heard much in 40+ years: Hobo and Billy Club-Night Stick.

 

[skydog757]

I have recently heard two terms in TV and song that I have not heard much in 40+ years: Hobo and Billy Club-Night Stick.

"Hobo"s are now "the Homeless" or some other more polite term; police now use "Batons". Nowhere near as colorful.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

"Hobo"s are now "the Homeless" or some other more polite term; police now use "Batons". Nowhere near as colorful.

I recall the now-extinct (and distinctly non-PC) term "paddy wagon". I wonder where the "billy" in "billy club" comes from?

 

[skydog757]

I'm currently watching The Making of the Mob; one term I have not heard in ages is "G-man".

 

[Stearmen]

"Hobo"s are now "the Homeless" or some other more polite term; police now use "Batons". Nowhere near as colorful.

No, I have heard all three terms on current TV shows, and in two songs, neither were retro themed either. They were current hip modern culture, if I am using the right terms?

 

[HudsonHawk]

"Hobo"s are now "the Homeless" or some other more polite term; police now use "Batons". Nowhere near as colorful.

"Hobo" would now be more accurately described today as a "migrant worker". All hobos are homeless, but not all homeless are hobos.

 

[LizzieMaine]

In the Era the distinction was --

Hobo: a worker who drifts from place to place, usually by rail.

Tramp: one who drifts from place to place, usually on foot, but doesn't work.

Bum: one who neither works nor drifts. (Or, alternately, a member of the Brooklyn baseball club.)

 

[tonyb]

"Hobo" would now be more accurately described today as a "migrant worker". All hobos are homeless, but not all homeless are hobos.

Yup. My grandfather, who hoboed around quite a bit in his early years, as did many of his generation, made a clear distinction between hobos and bums. Hobos were itinerant workers, and bums were idlers.

It wasn't that he disliked bums, either. Indeed, he rather enjoyed passing the time with them during his retirement years, hanging out in the public places where they hung out. I do believe that was in part to his knowing that he was but a step or two removed from such a lifestyle himself, had he not found a wife and a regular job at a critical juncture. And had those factors not helped him keep his drinking under control.

I'll never forget his advice for dealing with bums: "Let 'em bum cigarettes, but don't give 'em money. They'll just drink it up, sure as hell."

 

[LizzieMaine]

Meanwhile, hobo slang gave us a lot of words and phrases that were very popular in the Era. Hobos called railroad security guards "bulls", and in the thirties this word passed into general use as referring to any violent, thuggish police officer. It was especially popular in labor slang -- when the United Auto Workers routed an army of General Motors goons, Flint city police, and state troopers during the 1936-37 sit-down strikes, it was forever after known as "The Battle of Bulls Run."

 

[HudsonHawk]

Meanwhile, hobo slang gave us a lot of words and phrases that were very popular in the Era. Hobos called railroad security guards "bulls", and in the thirties this word passed into general use as referring to any violent, thuggish police officer. It was especially popular in labor slang -- when the United Auto Workers routed an army of General Motors goons, Flint city police, and state troopers during the 1936-37 sit-down strikes, it was forever after known as "The Battle of Bulls Run."

And to tie this back to the origin of the term "billy club", it's probably a corruption of "bully club". Not sure if that's a reference to particularly thuggish police officers, but it certainly refers to the blunt force one would wield with such a club.

 

[Bamaboots]

I remember in the academy going through "baton" training. We were taught not only how to use it but also how to write about its use in the ensuing report. Never refer to it as a "stick or club." Alway refer to its use as " due to the subjects lack of compliance and continued resistance this writer was forced to strike 'never hit' the subject with the baton in an effort to gain compliance."

 

[Zombie_61]

...I wonder where the "billy" in "billy club" comes from?

And to tie this back to the origin of the term "billy club", it's probably a corruption of "bully club". Not sure if that's a reference to particularly thuggish police officers, but it certainly refers to the blunt force one would wield with such a club.

A little quick Google research indicates that no one really knows where the term "billy club" comes from or how it originated. One theory is that early London constables were called "billies" because they served as law enforcement for King William IV, who was also known as "Old Bill", but most believe "billy" is simply a variation of "bully", which was used to describe London police officers during the Victorian era. [huh]

 

[dh66]

Meanwhile, hobo slang gave us a lot of words and phrases that were very popular in the Era. Hobos called railroad security guards "bulls", and in the thirties this word passed into general use as referring to any violent, thuggish police officer. It was especially popular in labor slang -- when the United Auto Workers routed an army of General Motors goons, Flint city police, and state troopers during the 1936-37 sit-down strikes, it was forever after known as "The Battle of Bulls Run."

I live near a railroad switching yard, and everyone around here still calls the railroad police "bulls". I've even heard the local regular police call them that.

As for " hobos", there's still plenty of transients that blow through here, but most seem to be migrant drinkers, not migrant workers. It's maybe a mile, at best, from the yards to the closest freeway exit ramp. There's almost always a couple of them flying a sign there, or down at the local Walmart parking lot.

 

[Bamaboots]

When I first started in LE there was an area near the railroad switching yard that was referred to as the "jungle", just a small heavily wooded area that the "hobos" used as a campsite (drinking spot) while they waited on their next ride. Many of these men were locals that I came to know over the years and they were like migratory birds, south for the winter and north for the summer. They traveled the country by rail.

Our town was well known by this group for having a couple of liberal homeless shelters and I met men from MN to FL that I would identify and question from time to time that said they had heard of the shelters from others they had met during their travels.

The RR police around there were also referred to as "bulls" by the locals and the transient drinkers, though after awhile I came to know them as bulls****ers.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^^^

In Seattle there's a hillside greenbelt alongside Interstate 5 also known as "the jungle," which was, for many years, a sprawling homeless encampment. The vegetation there is so dense that the encampment was all but invisible from the outside. I did a story on it once, a dozen years ago or so. I was advised against entering by cops and parks dep't personnel. Didn't seem all that dangerous to me, though. And some of the structures, cobbled together from scrap materials, were kinda impressive.

"The jungle" has since been cleared out and mountain bike trails and such are there now. I remember joking with a friend about the funds budgeted to clear out the place. We determined that we both went into the wrong lines of work.

Frankly, the authorities and the neighborhood busybodies made a much bigger deal of it than it ever was. Its dangers were grossly overstated, and its cleanup was a tremendous over-expenditure. Sure, people were doing in the woods that which we often ascribe to bears, but the "hazard mitigation" efforts were clearly excessive.

 

[LizzieMaine]

We have a "jungle" about half a mile from where I live, hidden in brush along the shore near a steel-fabrication plant. It's been cleaned out repeatedly over the last ten years or so, but it keeps reconstituting itself with tents, shanties made out of discarded wood and metal, and other such detrius. A regular Hooverville transplanted into the 21st Century. But it's nowhere near the railroad, which is on the other side of town -- most of our drifting transient population arrive on foot or via hitchhiking.

 

[foamy]

Was working on a boat one day and a friend was helping. He asked me to move the "trestle-bench" over to help support some wood. Meaning; sawhorse. Now I prefer the old-school name.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

And to tie this back to the origin of the term "billy club", it's probably a corruption of "bully club". Not sure if that's a reference to particularly thuggish police officers, but it certainly refers to the blunt force one would wield with such a club.

In the movie Beverly Hills Cop the name of the character played by Judge Reinhold was Detective Billy Rosewood, a play on rosewood billy club.

most of our drifting transient population arrive on foot or via hitchhiking.

Out here some of the transients live in old recreational vehicles or motor homes which has led to friction with local residents in places like Venice Beach and Westchester where they park on the city streets and often empty out their septic tanks there.