Martha and Grant revisit the “apple core, Baltimore” game they discussed a few episodes ago. Many listeners learned it from this Donald Duck cartoon. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Apple Core, Baltimore Game”
Not too long ago, we were talking on the show about the Apple Corps Baltimore game.
You remember that?
Yes, Nevermore, Forevermore, something like that.
Right, right, right.
And all the little variations.
You eat an apple down to the core, and then you yell out, Apple Corps, and then the first
Person who says Baltimore gets to designate which direction you throw the Apple Corps,
Ideally, at one of your friends or family members.
Boy, did this ever generate a ton of email and phone calls.
Yeah, you know, I think that you and I are the only people in America who never saw the Disney cartoon.
My gosh, yes, this is amazing.
A lot of people wrote us to tell us that they learned it first from a Donald Duck and Chip and Dale cartoon.
And we had so many people send us the link that we decided that we would put a link on our website so you can see it too.
And I have to say, I have to add a little caveat, which is that there’s some sort of ethnic stereotyping going on in that cartoon, as happened with a lot of the cartoons.
Because in this particular cartoon, Donald Duck holds something explosive and explodes, and he falls all the way through the earth to China.
And so the Apple Corps Baltimore game is actually played with somebody way down the hole in China, and you can imagine how that went.
But anyway.
Yeah, we’re in a different era and a different time.
Right, different sensitivities and that kind of thing.
But so many people wrote to tell us about this cartoon that you and I missed that I thought we would put it on the website anyway.
Right, and it’s good to have it.
It’s not the oldest use of it, but it’s definitely a place where I would call that the popularizer.
Yeah, yeah.
We actually got a message on our discussion forum from somebody who wrote,
I’m 63 years old, I grew up in Southern California, and as a child in elementary school, this was a common game.
Many of us had apples in our lunch sack or lunch box, and when we finished eating, we played apple core.
And she says her mother also told her that her mother played this game as a child.
She was born in Illinois in 1910.
So it does seem to go back quite a ways.
But I think it was Chip and Dale who, as you said, popularized it in the minds of a lot of people.
Well, we always welcome your calls and comments about things that we talk about on the air.
It’s never too late.
Give us a call, 1-877-929-9673, or send an email to words@waywordradio.org.
