Sandy from Richmond, Virginia, says her mother would fondly recall the bacon bats she participated in while a student at Smith College. A bacon bat was a festive outdoor picnic that featured bacon and other savory treats cooked over an open fire. The bat in bacon bat is an old term that meant “spree” or “debauched activity,” but by the time Smithies and other college kids were enjoying bacon bats, they were just good clean fun. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “What Kind of Party is a “Bacon Bat”?”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Sandy. I’m calling from Richmond, Virginia, but my heart is in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts.
Oh, lovely. That’s great country.
Yeah. If you know it, yes, it is.
I have a word that’s been a mystery in my family for many years. My mom went to Smith College in Northampton, Mass. And once a year, they would take a day off from school, and they would go to the mountains, and they would have bacon bats.
As far as I know, my mom recently died, so I’m afraid she doesn’t have the answer. She’s been dogging me to get the answer to this. They would get together, and they’d play games, and I’m thinking they would sing, games for sure. It was all women’s college.
Well, Mom had always wondered what this word meant and what the origin of it was. And I Googled it, and she didn’t seem to be terribly satisfied. And so I decided I would probably ask some of the old-timers here around the lake what their definition of bacon bat was.
And one of them said, well, we’d go across the lake, and we would have hot dogs and hamburgers, and we would just bat thoughts around, just shoot the breeze.
Yeah.
And then the other, this other guy said, oh, no, we would have hot dogs and hamburgers. And then we would go down the next day and play softball. And that’s where the bat came in.
And then my husband had this crazy notion that maybe it had something to do really with bacon and with a bat. But maybe long ago they called sticks bats. So the question I have for you, is it bake and bat or is it bacon bat? And is it bat like softball or is it bat like things that fly around? That’s my question.
All right. So, Sandy, we’re talking about, let’s just get this right, B-A-C-O-N space B-A-T. Two words, right? Bacon bat?
Bacon bat. Nobody really knew how to spell it. Or maybe it’s bake, B-A-K-E.
Well, let’s clear that one up right away. Martha and I both know that it is bacon bat, bacon like the meat.
Right. And the really interesting thing is that this is an entirely different definition of the word bat. There’s an old sense of bat that means a spree or a debauched activity. It may come from an old phrase, to go on the batter, which means to walk the streets for purposes of prostitution.
I don’t think my mom would agree with that.
No, no, no. I didn’t mean that after a while. It lost that meaning after a while.
Yes, yes. I was getting to that. For college girls back in the day, and the earliest we see this is 1907 and associated, indeed, with Smith College.
No kidding.
Yes, absolutely. And so the idea was a spree sort of with the air of being naughty a little bit. You know, you’re getting to go outside and experience the great outdoors. You’re doing something other than being stuck at college studying.
And so, yes, it was a much watered down version of the term bat. But it was a great excuse to go out and do something different, to party outdoors.
Here’s a wonderful description of that kind of activity from a few years later in the Yampa Leader, which is a Colorado newspaper. Check out this description, Sandy.
A young college friend informed me that the very latest thing in outdoor affairs was a bacon bat. We all feel the call of the wild on these glorious days, and I’m sure many of our readers will want to have a bacon bat just as soon as they read this. Provide plenty of delicious bacon, sliced very thin, sweet potatoes, and several dozen finger rolls. Build a fire, roast the sweet potatoes, or take a frying pan and have the potatoes boiled at home and fry them over the coals. Grill the bacon on the ends of long sticks, insert the finger rolls, and you have a meal fit for a king.
And this writer also suggests you bring coffee and says roasting Irish potatoes and taking a jar of butter with plenty of tissue paper napkins. Hard-boiled eggs are a welcome addition with a jar of tiny cucumber pickles and olives both ripe and green.
That was their version of it.
But what was the date of that?
That was 1911.
And they talked about tissue paper?
Tissue napkins.
Tissue napkins.
Yeah, and there were different versions.
Yes, but there were different versions of this, but it was the idea of luxuriating outdoors with other people and really tasty food.
Yes, take me away.
It does appear to have started with Smith College, which, as you know, is in Northampton, Massachusetts. That 1907 that Martha mentioned was part of their Mountain Day. Do you know what that is?
Well, I do because I went to school in Northampton, too, and we would have a Mountain Day, and it was always a surprise. So Mountain Day, which they still have and they had in 1907, is a day where nobody but the school president knows. But on an unknown day, the clock tower bell is rung, classes are canceled, and everyone heads for nature or is supposed to.
And so in 1907, according to newspaper articles, 1,500 girls headed for the woods, and they had bacon bats in the woods.
That’s wonderful information, which I could not have Googled. I knew I could get the information from you.
Oh, you’re geniuses. How cool. Thank you.
Sandy, thank you so much. Thanks for sharing your memories. Thank you so much. That was good. That was fun. Appreciate it.
All right. Bye-bye. Take care. Thanks, Sandy. Bye-bye.
There are lots of words we hear from the other generations, younger and older, that we need a little explanation for. Martha and I can help you sort that out. 877-929-9673. Email words@waywordradio.org.
