1936, WA: Seriously, yet another version of the “sitkum dolla” joke!
Keeping score, I count 2 jokes within this late telling of our venerable PNW joke.
Fish catching at Pike Place Market in Seattle (image credit: New York Times)
First, it’s funny to me that we’re told sitkum dolla means 75 cents! It’s ‘half a dollar’. Normally the sitkum dolla joke is about an English-speaking settler taking that Jargon phrase for ‘6’ or ’16’ or ’60’ dollars.
Second, the ending of this story has a twist that’s worth a chuckle.
A. C. (Jelly) Girard of Seattle
says that several years ago he and
George Dean, Aberdeen chief of po-
lice, were fishing and the fish were
not biting. On Indlan came down
the river in a canoe. The Indian
had fish.“How much are the fish?” asked
Dean.“Sitkum dollar,” said the Indian.
“I would not give sixteen dollars
for you and your fish and your
canoe,” said the police chief.Girard explained the Indian
meant 75 cents when he said “sit-
kum dollar.” Dean bought the fish
and the Indian started to hand
them to him. “No,” said Dean, re-
tiring a few feet, “toss them to me.
I want to tell my friends I caught
them.”
— from “Wild Life Chats” in the Vancouver (WA) Columbian of August 25, 1936, page 7, column 1
