Date:  Wed, 8 May 1996 06:55:56 -0400

From:  "M. Lynne Murphy" <104LYN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MUSE.ARTS.WITS.AC.ZA>

Subject: Re: packy?



> Late that next afternoon, I found Det. Lt. Royce Whitlock of the state police

> where he usually went for lunch on his days off: downstairs in the basement

> of a thriving cement-block mini-mall in Lynnfield--convenience store selling

> milk, cigarettes, potato chips, and lottery scratch cards and keno tickets

> that kept a bunch of older guys in satin jackets rapt in front of a TV

> screen; two-chair barber shop; sewing supplies store; packy; and a take-out

> sandwich shop.

>  --George V. Higgins, Sandra Nichols Found Dead. New York: Henry Holt,1996



a packy, in most of massachusetts (that i know of), is a liquor

store. more formally, a 'package store'. (this has something to do

w/ liquor selling laws in massachusetts, but i don't know what.)

don't know if it's spread to other parts of new england.



_packy_ was definitely the most dominant term for liquor store in

western mass when i lived there in the early-mid 80s. (i spent most

of my time there in a umass dorm, so the packy was a frequent topic of

conversation.) a "packy run" is a trip to the liquor store (to stock

up).



cheers,

lynne

---------------------------------------------------------------------

M. Lynne Murphy              104lyn[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]muse.arts.wits.ac.za

Department of Linguistics            phone: 27(11)716-2340

University of the Witwatersrand          fax: 27(11)716-8030

Johannesburg 2050

SOUTH AFRICA