Came in on the Noon Balloon

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Erica from New York City. Thanks for taking my call.

Hi, Erica. Where in New York City are you? I always have to ask.

I’m in Manhattan. I’m calling from Midtown, but I live on the Upper East Side.

Okay, okay. Well, I miss it. Kiss the ground for me, all right?

I will. I’ll say hello to this beautiful city.

What can we help you with, Erica?

Okay, so my family has this expression. Only my immediate family has been saying, and we assumed that it was common until we would say it around other people, and they were unfamiliar with it.

So the expression we say is, do you think I came in on the noon balloon? Which is another way of saying, do you think I was born yesterday?

Right.

So we have no idea where this saying came from. We’ve asked people in my family, extended family, older generations in the family. But they’re not familiar with it either.

So how many of you weirdos say it?

Well, it started, honestly, probably with my mom.

Okay.

And she has no idea where she got this from.

And, Erica, what do you picture when you say this?

I picture, like, a hot air balloon. I don’t know what.

So this is like somebody’s trying to pull your leg, and they’re like, no, really, you know, these four quarters are worth that $5 bill. And you’re like, what are you trying to do? You think I came in on the noon balloon? No, I’m not giving you a $5 bill for four quarters.

So who’s the oldest person who says it in your family, and how old are they, and what can you tell us about them?

Well, my mom says it. She’s 61.

Okay. Does your mom follow sports at all?

Sports?

Yeah.

She’s a baseball fan.

Okay. That’s probably her biggest thing, but nothing else, really.

There was a—Frank Finch was a columnist for the L.A. Times for years and years, and he loved that phrase and would throw it in there all the time. I don’t know if he was syndicated around the country, but it was really colorful sports pros. It was just anything that he could get. He would just pile in all this lingo and slang and catchphrases and invent a few of his own. He loved it. I don’t think he coined it.

And then there was a novelty hit in 1956 because there’s a longer form of this by a guy who called himself Nervous Norvous. His real name was Jimmy Drake or James Drake. And his song was called Noon Balloon from Rangoon. And there’s an even longer form, which is the noon balloon from Rangoon is coming soon. In June. In general, yeah.

And so that was 1956. That was a novelty hit. I mean, it was just burst on the scene. He sold like a half million copies, then he disappeared. And is it just one of those crazy silly rhymes and weird images?

Years ago, I did a whole listing for the Among the New Words section of the Journal of American Speech about rhyming phrases in English. Because we love them. And they tend to last a lot longer than phrases that don’t rhyme. So I’m wondering if she heard that novelty song in 1956.

Maybe. I mean, he sold a half million copies of it. You know, there were big write-ups for him. And Billboard is like the wacky news star. Because these were all goofball songs. Crazy lyrics, weird sound effects, kind of twangy guitars, silly voices, that sort of thing.

Were they the kind of thing you would do the twist to or the pony?

I think it was a little. It’s on YouTube if you want to look it up.

Oh, cool.

Yeah. It’s a noon balloon from Rangoon by James Drake or Nervous Norvis. And I think it’s a little more rockability in that way that rock and roll used to have a lot more of the ability and not so much of the rock, if you know what I mean.

Yeah.

So funny.

Yeah.

Anyway, I hope this helps. Pass this on. Let us know what she says, all right?

I will, definitely. Thank you very much.

Thanks a lot, Erica.

Bye-bye.

Nice talking to you.

Nice talking with you, too.

Thanks.

Bye.

Bye-bye.

Well, whether or not you came in on the noon balloon from Saskatoon or you just rode in on a load of cantaloupes, we still want to hear from you.

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