sidewalk alumni
n.pl.— «He was talking in somewhat awed tones of the game he had seen the day before at the Polo Grounds—the one between the New York Giants and the Chicago Bears.…As one of the sidewalk alumni who was sitting just behind where we were sitting said, “That’s the best ‘gool’ line stand I ever saw.”» —“With Malice Toward None” by W.J. Lee Hartford Courant (Connecticut) Oct. 25, 1939. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
Nancy Gabriel from Ithaca, New York, recalls her father’s no-nonsense responses to minor injuries when she was a child: After making sure she was really all right, he’d say, It’s far enough from your heart; it won’t kill you. Other times he...
In 1916, a small-town newspaper in Pennsylvania printed a fanciful item about a local gathering with a guest list that included, among others, Miss Ella Vader, Mr. Ray Zor, and other punny names. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of...