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Our choir is learning a 1930’s Medley that includes ‘Jeepers Creepers’. There has been some discussion about the lines ‘Golly gee! When you turn those heaters on – woe is me – Got to put my cheaters on!’ Am I correct in assuming the ‘heaters’ refers to eyes and ‘cheaters’ to sunglasses?

Vic Neilson, Munster, Lower South Coast, KwaZuluNatal, South Africa
vneilson@mweb.co.za

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Sounds good to me.

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Not to me.
In my neck of ths woods "cheaters" in this context refers to better seeing glasses not dimming glasses e.g. Hand me my cheaters so I can read the small print.

Of course "heaters" are not "hooters" so that term must be a musical license term for "eyes".

Good luck.

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Yes, jj is right. The whole song is about eyes, so "heaters" are eyes used to attractive advantage: musical license indeed; cheaters are ordinary eyeglasses, slang of the period.

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Originally Posted By: Tromboniator
Yes, jj is right. The whole song is about eyes, so "heaters" are eyes used to attractive advantage: musical license indeed; cheaters are ordinary eyeglasses, slang of the period.


Yuppers! ! !


----please, draw me a sheep----
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Only problem: that meaning of cheaters doesn't fit the sense of the song.

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Only problem: that meaning of cheaters doesn't fit the sense of the song.

The context of the song is rather strange. In the 1938 movie, Going Places, Louis Armstrong sings it to a race horse. There's a clip on YouTube. With a horse and eyes, you'd think of blinders, not glasses.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
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With a big enough hammer, I can make it fit!

Okay, maybe it makes more sense if they are sunglasses, but I never heard that usage in actual conversation, as I did in reference to ordinary glasses. Jeepers creepers, I admit I've never taken the song seriously enough to look for sense in it.

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Originally Posted By: Tromboniator
... I've never taken the song seriously enough to look for sense in it.


Good move.

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D'accord.


----please, draw me a sheep----
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