Transcript of “Rinctums! No Rinctums!”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hey, this is Nias from Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Hi, Nias. Welcome to the show.
Hey, how’s it going?
What’s on your mind today?
Yeah, so my word is ringthums.
And it’s a tradition in our family on my mom’s side that, like, so we use this term ringthums whenever someone gets a new haircut.
And if we see them, like we see them walk into the room and we say ring thumbs before they say no ring thumbs, then we get to ball our fist and run our knuckles up the back of their head.
Yeah.
But if they say no ring thumbs first, then we’re obviously they cancel that out.
Oh, boy.
So ring thumbs and noogies is what this sounds like.
Ring thumbs like R-I-N-K-T-U-M-S.
Ring thumbs.
I would spell it R-I-N-C-T-U-M-S, but obviously the K is there as well.
It could go both ways.
I’ve talked to other family members, and they spell it with the K.
Oh, so it’s more than just your immediate family.
It’s your broader family?
Yeah, so all my uncles and cousins on my mom’s side.
And it’s mostly done in the males of the family, but of course you can do it to females.
But you don’t because we want to do it sometimes to hurt the other person.
That totally is a dude thing.
And so is this just in New Mexico or outside the state?
Just in New Mexico, but, well, it started originally in New Mexico.
Well, Aeneas, this sounds painful.
How do you feel about rinktums?
I like it because, you know, I like it whenever I’m able to do it to my cousins or my brother or my dad.
But obviously I don’t like, I haven’t got a haircut in about four years probably because of that.
Lots of long-haired people in your family in this, huh?
Oh yeah, yep.
Yeah, so it’s like getting noogies.
Yeah, it’s basically like a noogie but you run it like so you ball up your fist and run the knuckles up the back of the neck up to the top of the head so it’s just like one swift motion.
And I’ve asked around, I’ve never heard like no one else has heard of it outside of my immediate family, like my mom’s side of the family.
Well, you’ll be interested to know that this tradition goes way back to at least the early part of the 20th century.
There’s a really funny article that ran on the Associated Press wires back in 1921, and it was talking about the newest fad at the University of Texas, and they called the fad rinktums and scrapings.
And let me just read a little bit of this article to you.
You will appreciate this.
When a student gets his hair cut or trimmed and sallies forth on the campus, the other students have the right to declare ringtoms on him.
In case he yells, vink your ringtoms, before the unshorn students declare their right, he is safe from all harm.
The foiled students then have recourse.
They’re shouting scrapings, and the shaven-headed student has the same right as to shouting, vink your scrapings.
Rinctums consists of a heated rub with the knuckles on that part of the cranium that is more fully exposed on account of the recent hair trimming.
It’s a common sight on the university campus to see a student walking about with a fresh haircut and shouting, vink your rinctums and vink your scrapings at every cluster of student he sees.
So this is like a Pokemon battle, really.
Yeah.
They use the reverse card.
Yeah.
So wait a second here.
So basically what’s happening is I’ve gotten a haircut.
Others have the right to declare ringtoms on me.
But I can yell vink your ringtoms to stop the knuckle attack.
But they can yell scrapings to stop my stopping.
Or I can yell vink your scrapings to stop their stopping of my stopping.
And I can yell vink your ringtoms and vink your scrapings to stop all the stopping and make sure nobody knuckles my head.
Well said.
Yeah, or like Aeneas, you can say no ringtoms.
No ringtoms.
I think Aeneas’ version is simpler and still allows dudes to be dudes and, like, knuckle each other’s noggins.
Yeah.
It would have got too complicated if we allowed all those counter strikes in our family.
Oh, yeah, it would just be a fist fight every time, right?
Yeah, seriously.
Yeah, that’s crazy because my grandpa actually went to the University of Texas.
And he’s the one that started it or that we can trace it back to.
My mom’s side of the family.
So maybe that’s where he got it from.
Oh, interesting.
I’d be interested to find out when he went there.
Yeah, so that lasted for a while.
It showed up.
So what was that date, Martha?
19… 1921.
Yeah, it lasted into the 1920s at the University of Texas.
And who knows how much further.
Yeah, I think that should be about the time my grandpa was over in that area as well.
Well, how about that?
Well, Niaz, thank you so much for sharing this family story with us.
It’s more widespread than you might think.
Take care, dude.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
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