#39654
08/26/2001 8:00 PM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
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#39655
08/26/2001 10:49 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Well, gosh-a-mighty, sure I knew that. Many of the former soldiers, as old men, married very young women. Shoot--a couple of months ago, I interviewed an 82-year-old lady for our church newsletter, and she said her FATHER told her he remembered seeing Civil War soldiers marching by his home when he was a child. Still and all, it was 140 years ago. Pretty remarkable. Nice music on the site, too! 
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#39656
08/26/2001 11:55 PM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
Ok! I am 72 and when I was about 10 or 11 I went to a Fourth of July parade with my parents and I distinctly recall my Dad pointing out veterans of the Civil War passing by in a bunting-draped convertable as the band played "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."
Remember in that war, soldiers were sometimes as young as 12-years-old (drummer boys particularly.)
You do the math, my brain's all squiffy.
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#39657
08/27/2001 12:28 AM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Ok, you made me look it up! Found it in a March 28th Miscellany thread that I refuse to copy the name of. Looks like sarawhyler used it first, though since Search comes up in Threaded Mode, I couldn't tell for sure.
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#39658
08/27/2001 3:37 AM
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Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 10,542 |
in British slang it means intoxicated; in Australian slang it means askew (according to our friends at OED). "But o' course he was blind squiffy when he wrote the paper. I hope you explained that?" said Stalky. -Kipling "I never associated it with an orgy, a term I felt to imply a Roman profusion of grapes, wine, buttocks, breasts, marble chaises-longues, and squiffy laurel crowns." -G. Melly Rum, Bum & Concertina http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=wordplay&Number=25588
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#39659
08/27/2001 7:53 AM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,055
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 1,055 |
>in Australian slang [squiffy] means askew
I've heard it used in this sense before, but skew-whiff is far more common.
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#39660
08/27/2001 8:02 AM
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
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#39661
08/27/2001 12:07 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
my ex husband's grandmother died about 10 years ago, age 103. My children had known their great grandmother well-- her father was a one legged surviver of Andersonville prison, who returned to norther NH-- (about 60 mile /1 hour's drive) north of Mt Washington-- and resumed a live as a farmer, and father another 6 or 7 children..(for a total of 13) This area of NH has hard rocky soil, and as short a growing season as any where in US.. with frost recorded as late at July.
my kids grew up hearing from great grandma, stories of her father, and her childhood..for them, the civil war didn't seem so long ago though at first, they where confused-- Great grand ma spoke of "Pa" losing his leg in the WAR, and didn't know which war.
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