Box with Five Handles

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, you’re talking with Barb Jones from Battle Creek, Michigan.

Hiya, Barb. Welcome to the show.

Hey, Barb. Hi.

I wanted to tell you a little story about when I was four.

There was a young cousin that was in her 20s that came to visit from Georgia.

It was near my birthday, and of course, being four years old, I was so excited.

And I said, I’m going to have a birthday.

And she said, I know.

She says, I’m going to give you a box with five handles.

Well, being four years old, I was so excited because in my mind, I could imagine a box big enough to have five handles on it.

You know, and I hadn’t gotten a big birthday present before.

So when my birthday came, I was anticipating her coming over with that box.

At the time that she said it, I remember my aunt and my mom kind of giggling a little bit, but I thought nothing of it, being that young.

So my birthday came and went, and she didn’t come by, but she did come by the next day.

And I said, where’s my box with five handles?

And she said, here, lay across my lap.

And she had a little hairbrush, and she spanked me five times.

So the box with five handles was, you know, a spanking.

That’s what they used to do sometimes.

I mean, it wasn’t anything that hurt.

But it was just a tap on my rock five times because it was my birthday.

And, of course, she rewarded me by taking me to the ice cream store, getting me a big old rainbow sherbet cone.

But I was so disappointed, and I really think I was traumatized from that.

A box with five handles was a spanking.

Yes, where in the world would that saying come from?

A box with five handles.

A box with five handles was a hand.

The handles were each of the five fingers, and the box was the shape of the fist.

It forms kind of a square-shaped thing that looks like a box.

Yeah.

So it goes back to the 1870s.

It does? Really?

Oh, my gosh.

I have never heard it before and I haven’t heard it since.

But it’s stuck in my head all these years.

I’m interested that you said that she was from Georgia.

Because we see this expression in a lot of the folklore from the Southeast,

Talking about a box with five handles, meaning, you know, a hand and five fingers whomping up

Beside the head. Oh, my goodness. That is amazing. Well, my mom being from Georgia.

Yeah, I’ve also seen a box with five nails, which you can imagine, you know, five fingers with five

Nails. Really? Oh, I have never heard any of those. Do you feel better now, Barb? Now that you

I do.

She remembers that ice cream with great fondness.

Well, yes, it was a great ice cream.

I had never had a big rainbow sherbet ice cream cone before, so that was kind of cool.

But still, she imprinted my brain for the rest of my life, and that was actually in the 1950s.

So I’ve had that in my head for a long time.

Barb, thank you for sharing your story and your memories.

We really appreciate it.

Thank you.

Okay.

Take care now.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.