If a fellow thinks he’s a cooler than he really is, he’d be known in the South as a dirt road sport. This term’s been defined as “a country boy showing off in a Saturday afternoon town,” and refers to someone reaching beyond his station in life, perhaps by spending beyond his means and making a show of it. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Dirt Road Sport”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Neil Morgan from Sherman, Texas.
Welcome to the show, Neil.
Well, thank you.
What’s going on?
Well, I have an expression that comes from my wife’s family. And I don’t know if it just originated in their family or if it is something regional from the Mobile area where her parents grew up.
Oh, good. We love these.
Yeah. So the expression is dirt road sport.
Oh, what’s a dirt road sport to you?
Well, the dirt road, the first time I heard it used was my mother-in-law describing her son’s new motorcycle. And it was a beautiful motorcycle. And I was expressing admiration. And she said, oh, yeah, he’s a dirt road sport. And it made sense to me, you know, even though it was a street bike, that, you know, it had to do with, you know, a vehicle or something.
But then later on, I always go there on vacation, and we have an evening tradition, which we weren’t going to be able to observe because we had run out of gin. And I had to go to the store to get a bottle of gin so we could have our eyeball swappers.
Eyeball swappers?
Yeah, our eyeball swappers. That’s a gin and tonic in the Patton family.
I see.
Eyeball swappers. Right next down, eyeball swappers. You swap your own eyeballs or you swap with somebody else?
Well, we never drink alone, so I don’t know. I guess it could be with someone else. Take one down, pass it around, right?
Right, right.
So anyway, I went to the store, and being the guest, I just bought the best bottle of gin in the store and brought it back. And when I took it out of the bag, then Miriam, my mother-in-law, looked at that, and her eyebrows went up, and she said, well, aren’t you the dirt road sport? And I realized then that it meant something else. And basically, it seems to mean kind of reaching beyond your station in life.
Huh. Yes.
And buying something above what you ordinarily would be able to afford.
Oh, Neil, that’s great. Can I read you a definition of dirt road sport from 1976?
Sure.
A country boy showing off in a Saturday afternoon town.
Okay.
It’s exactly what you said. It’s somebody who thinks he is the hottest thing on two legs. And when he goes to the big city, he still acts like it. And everybody’s like, look at you, dirt road sport.
Right.
Okay.
But, yeah, there’s elements here. It’s definitely somebody who’s putting on a little show, trying to be just a little slicker and a little more polished than they actually are. Reaching above.
I like that.
Reaching above, yeah.
Okay.
All right.
The sport part is really interesting. It used to be a fairly common just kind of way to refer to a young man in general, just the same way you might say Mac, buddy, or pal.
Yeah, what are you doing, sport? You’ll hear sport today. Usually it’s an intergenerational thing, older generation talking to a younger generation. Not nearly as common. That is the same sport, though, as in dirt road sport. So it’s somebody who is the cock of the walk on a dirt road.
Okay, right, right.
All dressed up.
All dressed up. Got the feathers combed back and the spurs are jangling.
Well, that makes a lot of sense. And so is it regional to Pensacola or Mobile?
It’s southern. It’s southern in general. And it’s not that common, but you will find sprinkles of it all throughout the south. And I think somewhere around the Mason-Dixon line, there’s an electromagnetic field that pushes it back. As far as I know, it’s not used in the north.
Okay.
But they still have dirt road sports there.
They do.
They call them something else. I don’t think I can say it on the air.
Okay, all right.
But those young men, that particular kind of young man who is not quite aware that he is not the awesome fellow that he thinks he is, is fairly universal.
Yeah, yeah.
But I guess it should be a compliment when you’re in your 50s to be called a dirt road.
You can tell yourself that.
Yeah.
That’s fine.
Sure.
Neil, you’re great, man. That is fantastic. You’re entertaining us. Martha’s even got a rosy cheek here. I want to do some eyeball swapping.
Yeah.
All right. Well, we’ll come down there sometime and do that, all right?
Thanks, Deanna.
Okay, that sounds great. Take care now.
Take care.
Bye-bye.
Okay, you too.
Bye-bye.
Now, I wonder if eyeball swapping is unique to their family. We’ll have to look that one up.
Eyeball swapper, yeah.
I don’t know. Call us and swap some language stories, 877-929-9673.
