[Dixielandjazz] non-PC Choo Choo

[ROBERT R. CALDER]

Dear Bill, 

                I gather it was a stranger from the audience who greeted Al Casey in the unfortunate way.
Rex would have had more occasion for perplexity, greeted officially.  I also don't know how far Al would have grasped that this was a Welshman and not some transatlantic redneck (not to be confused with the gentlemen from North America whose intelligent holiday habits have brought them into the audience at gigs nearer my domicile. 


I was of course mostly joking about the "boy" appellation, though as a tender youth I was cruelly exposed to 

the silver wedding celebration of a wartime bride and her Scottish husband, notably the one G----nn M-ll-r LP to which these vigorously philistine forty-somethings quasi-jived for several hours.  

Perhaps I ought to have participated in the equally fashion-bound smoking activity in which the sons of sometime wedding-guests participated in a more secluded corner of the premises ...   I cannot however think that this would have enabled me to recover. 


On an even more unmusical note, there is the English and sort of Wodehouse/ Wooster form of address,"old fruit" which carries no implication beyond upper class English. The security people were horrified when a posh lady suddenly intruded into the party officially welcoming Premier Kosygin to Glasgow,  grinning and tendering a handshake the old Soviet official accepted warmly. Her greeting "How's it going, old fruit?" was a hoot on the other side of the Atlantic. 


How can there be a tuxedo junction if the two sides of the garment won't button across the middle-aged belly?

very good wishes, 

Robert 




>________________________________
> From: Bill Haesler <bhaesler at bigpond.net.au>
>To: ROBERT R. CALDER <serapion at btinternet.com>; Dixieland Jazz Mailing List <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com> 
>Sent: Monday, 11 February 2013, 22:35
>Subject: non-PC Choo Choo
> 
>ROBERT R. CALDER commented:
>> Chattanooga, indeed!
>> Surely the opening, "Pardon me, boy"  (Boy!!!) is racist and these days unacceptable?
>> Roy Williams did remember Al Casey, a mild man as I remember, getting het up in a misunderstanding when a Welsh fan using the traditional "Boyo" form of address, was misheard by Al as "boy" and deeply and understandably resented. 
>
>Dear Robert,
>Rex Stewart spent six months in Australia touring with Graeme Bell and His Australian Jazz Band and made separate nightclub and concert appearances in Sydney.
>Graeme Bell's brother Roger always used the salutation "Hi there boy" (or similar) and Rex was no exception when they met at Melbourne airport.
>Following the surprised look on Rex's face a band member later explained that Roger called everyone 'boy'.
>(The same way many Australians use the term 'mate'.)
>When Rex next saw Roger he greeted him with a big smile and "How's it goin' there boy?"
>Instant friends. 
>Very kind regards,
>Bill (but nearly always 'boy' to Roger).
>
>