1943, Alaska: “Barbs”
The ever-popular “folks talk weird on the frontier” trope!
In this occurrence, it’s “The Last Frontier”, as Alaska’s car license plates say.
I wish I still had my old copy of “Wein, Weib, und Gesang” by Raymond Pettibon, I’d be rich!
(Image credit: MoMA)
Here we have Chinook Jargon transforming 2 out of 3 items in the wartime version of a famous expression of having fun:
BARBS
Man down from Alaska reports
they don’t say “wine, women and
song” any more in the far north.
It’s “hooch, klooch and juke.”
— from the Tacoma (WA) Times of February 15, 1943, page 1, column 2
