Date:  Wed, 6 Dec 1995 15:02:39 -0500

From:  Ronald Butters <amspeech[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ACPUB.DUKE.EDU>

Subject: Re: Re(2): toboggan



On Tue, 28 Nov 1995, Natalie Maynor wrote:



> I'm pretty sure that I heard Toboggan in reference to a knit cap before

> I learned that it also meant some kind of sled-type thing. In Mississippi

> the only sled-type things we were familiar with were trays dragged out of

> kitchens at the first sign of ice or snow. Even now I don't think I've

> ever seen a real sled except in pictures. But we had some great home-made

> skate-cars, which I guess could be categorized as "sled-type things." We

> used them for racing down hills on streets. It's a miracle that any of us

> survived to adulthood.



The first time I saw TOBOGGAN 'hat' was in the Durham, NC, HERALD (about

1968). They reported that somebody had robbed a convenience store with "a

toboggan pulled down over his face." Being from Iowa, I did not know

TOBOGGAN in any sense other than 'sled', and so the image of the

bank-robbing practices which came to my mind were rather bizarre.