Set the Soup Outside

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Will from our summer residence near Birchwood, Wisconsin.

Hi, Will.

Hey, Will. Welcome to the program.

Where are you the rest of the time?

Well, our home is in the St. Louis area.

Oh, very good. I’m from out that way, born in St. Louis.

Well, what can we help you with today?

Well, my question has to do with an expression to set the soup outside.

My two brothers and I were big Cardinal fans as we were growing up, and in the late 1940s, early 1950s, we were in the left field bleachers at Old Sportsman’s Park when the Brooklyn Dodgers came to town.

And, of course, since they had brought up Jackie Robinson as the first African-American player in modern Major League Baseball history, most of the African-American fans were rooting for the Dodgers.

Well, in this particular game, Roy Campanella, one of the other great black players, hit a home run that went over our heads in the left field bleachers, and the African-American fans were ecstatic.

And one of them said, he set the soup outside. He set the soup outside.

That’s an expression we’d never heard before, and we’ve never heard it since.

And so this was around the 1940s?

Could have been the early 50s as well.

But still, we’re talking about 50 years ago or so.

Yeah, more like 60, probably.

And you’ve been wondering for 50 years what this meant.

Oh, yes.

We’ve told this story many times because it was such a colorful expression, and we’ve wondered what the source of it might be.

So, Will, I’ve got a theory for you.

All right.

Do you know how when you make an automobile faster, you talk about souping it up?

Yes.

Well, that soup and that word comes from old slang for nitroglycerin, and they used to just call it soup.

And this was something used in construction or in building dams or just any kind of massive engineering.

Basically, you make TNT out of it, blow gigantic holes in the walls of the ground or whatever, dig it up.

And soup was the slang for that.

And so it became transferred to making a car faster.

It became transferred to making anything faster or better.

And my theory is that the soup he was talking about wasn’t actual soup that you might eat, you know, soup with barley and chicken.

My theory is he was talking about the strength of his hit as being the soup, or the soup being the muscle that he put behind it, or the power that he had.

Well, that’s as likely an explanation as anyone can think of.

The soup you eat when you set it outside would seem to cool it off or something.

Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.

Yeah, so he set the soup outside, meaning that nobody could touch it or it was out of bounds.

Yes, yes.

I don’t see any other examples of this being used anywhere ever.

Maybe somebody from the African-American community could send something to you on your website or something, and if they have any explanations.

Boy, I hope. That’s great.

I would love to hear that.

We’re often rescued in that way.

When we don’t set the soup outside.

So let me just summarize this.

It’s a massive home run, and when he hit it, one of the fans said that he set the soup outside.

Does anyone know that? Have you heard this? Do you have anything concrete that you can pass along?

Do let us know, 877-929-9673, or send it an email to words@waywordradio.org.

Will, thank you so much for giving us a call.

If we find out anything new, or if you find out anything new, we’ll exchange info, all right?

Thank you very much.

Our pleasure.

Thanks, Will.

Bye-bye.

Bye.