Date: Fri, 13 May 1994 11:29:42 EDT
From: Wayne Glowka wglowka[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MAIL.GAC.PEACHNET.EDU
Subject: Re: peckerwood
EDWARD CALLARY WROTE:
Re; Peckerwood.....in at least Western Oklahoma and
eastern new mexico, in at least the more rural areas. . . . Peckerwood was
often used by the staff there, even to a student's face, to refer
to a student who was a little dickens, a skeezix, a loveable
rascal, someone who even was a pleasant diversion. . . . There I knew of no
racial distributions. . . .
I remember using the term as a high school student in Texas in the late
sixties. We used the term with no racial implications. A person who did
something like pour soda water or coke on me while I was lying there with
my eyes shut would be accused of being a peckerwood. I never really knew
at all what the term meant exactly (like "fink" or "twerp"), but I used it
as necessary.
Wayne Glowka
Professor of English
Georgia College
Milledgeville, GA 31061
912-453-4222
wglowka[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]mail.gac.peachnet.edu