Claire from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, shares a phrase dear to her late friend. Her friend was known for saying since Christ left Philadelphia, meaning “a very long time ago.” This expression fits a well-worn pattern of comic hyperbole using improbable historical or biblical figures. Other examples include since Christ was a cowboy, since Pontius was a pilot, and since Adam was an oakum boy. John Dos Passos used a version in his 1921 novel Three Soldiers (Bookshop|Amazon), and the pattern arguably goes all the way back to William Shakespeare, who used the line since before Noah was a sailor in his play Twelfth Night (Bookshop|Amazon). This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Since Christ, Pontius, and Adam Left Philly”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, so glad to talk to you.
Hi, who am I talking to?
This is Claire.
I’m basically from New York, but I’m presently in Philadelphia, but that’s not necessarily relevant to my question.
But it’s a huge story, I bet.
Two of the world’s great cities, and you’ve lived in them both.
That’s right.
What’s on your mind, Claire?
Okay, so I had a friend who recently passed away, and I’ve known her since 96.
So we’re talking a good amount of time.
And she was known by some of her phrases.
And one of her phrases that we never knew really where it came from, but she used all the time, was,
Since Christ left Philadelphia.
I haven’t seen you since Christ left Philadelphia.
And we’re like, okay, that’s been a long time, Tony.
We never knew why it was Christ in Philadelphia.
So tell us a little about your friend.
Was she super religious and this was just kind of her way of like being a little naughty?
No, no, she is.
Well, I guess I mean, she was raised Catholic, but she’s definitely not religious in that way.
OK, she’s from a second generation Italian and from Connecticut.
OK, gotcha.
She had so many phrases that she used all the time at her service, they made a two-page list.
Oh, that’s so amazing.
That’s a memory stored right there.
Oh, totally, totally.
So since Christ left Philadelphia, Martha, that’s a long time ago, right?
Apparently, yeah.
Apparently so.
Claire, I’m wondering if you’ve heard any other versions of that phrase.
Or is it always Christ and always Philadelphia?
It was only her.
It was only her.
And that’s the only thing she ever said.
She didn’t ever alter it or change it in any way.
And she was, like, known for that and many other things.
But it was always since Christ left Philadelphia.
I’m like, okay.
I’m surprised, Martha, Claire, because there are so many of these.
Yeah, it’s a particular pattern that we see a whole lot.
Particularly since Christ left Chicago.
That’s the one that I’ve heard.
Sometimes it’s Cleveland, but yeah.
Oh, my.
And it’s this pattern of, you know, since somebody left some place, and it’s usually some historical figure, somebody really improbable, you know, since Moses did something or George Washington or Caesar.
But, yeah, the idea is that it was a long time ago.
And the ones that combine Christ, I’ve seen it more often as since Christ was a cowboy or since Christ was a corporal.
I know John Dos Passos, the writer in 1921, had a book called Three Soldiers.
And there were a couple of mentions in that book where, you know, soldiers were saying, I ain’t had any pay since Christ was a corporal.
So it’s always this improbable, just weird thing.
I know, Grant, you know a lot of other expressions like this.
Well, what’s interesting is the kind of first one that we know of, which I don’t know for sure that was in the same jocular tone, but it’s from Shakespeare in Twelfth Night.
He says, since before Noah was a sailor, to mean a long time.
And it kind of sets a pattern there where we get these religious figures showing up.
So it’s before this, since this religious figure did X, whatever it was.
So you’ll get like since Jesus was a baby or since this is my favorite, since Pontius was a pilot.
Double joke there.
But also since Adam was an oakum boy, O-A-K-U-M, and an oakum boy was a young man who re-cocked or re-sealed the seams on ships.
And a lot of these earlier ones, just like the Noah was a sailor, are nautical.
Yeah. And a lot of those biblical ones too, right?
Like since Methuselah was a boy, Methuselah being hundreds of years old.
Since dirt was rock.
Since dirt was rock, yeah.
But look for things like on our website for like since Hector was a pup or since Suki was a calf.
And you’ll find a whole bunch more of these because we just have lists of them.
Okay, cool.
That’s great.
Thank you so much.
All right, you take care now.
And thank you for sharing with us.
Happy trails.
Same to you.
Same to you.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
We’d love to hear your language memories of the loved ones in your lives.
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