Date: Thu, 10 Nov 1994 17:03:53 -0800

From: Dan Alford dalford[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]S1.CSUHAYWARD.EDU

Subject: sow bugs, rolly-pollies (sp?) vs. pill bugs and doodlebugs, etc



Growing up in LA of of Arkansas hillbilly heritage, surrounded by other Arkies

and Okies in Wilmington (doesn't seem right to call it a suburb! -- what

are surrounding towns/cities called on the West Coast anyway?), I called

'them' sow bugs as the 'serious' name, rolly-pollies as a kind of 'cute'

name. Later I heard them called pill bugs from an LA woman of Iowa roots

(I'm sorry -- LA here means L.A., not Louisiana) -- and doodlebug, why

that was just as abstract word I'd heard, but not in relation to 'them'.

June bugs I think I heard about on trips to Texas, Arkansas, etc., but

I likewise didn't know they might refer to 'them'. Hardshell bugs sounds

very descriptive but very foreign.