Trade-Lasts

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi there, this is Linda.

Hello, Linda. Where are you calling from?

Well, I live in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Oh, there we go. I know that town. I have friends there. Welcome to the program.

Well, thank you so much. I’m delighted to be with you.

Great. What’s on your mind?

My mother had said something over the years that I just took for granted.

And the expression actually was T.L.

She would say this, and it meant that we had to come up with a compliment for her before she would reveal what she had heard.

And the reason it was driving me nuts most recently was that I mentioned it to a friend.

One day we were chatting, and she’s about my age and a university professor.

And when I mentioned that I had a TL for her, she gave me a very blank look.

And I was astonished that she didn’t know what it meant.

And then, even worse, I couldn’t tell her what it meant.

So you’re trading compliments then?

And you said the letters were T and L?

That’s correct.

Okay.

So you would say to her, I have a TL for you.

Yes.

And this is a compliment that you heard from somebody else?

Yes.

-huh.

And so she had to tell you a compliment that she heard about you from somebody else,

And then you would tell her, right?

It’s a little complicated, yes.

But back in the days when people had more conversations, it wasn’t so weird.

And so where did you first hear this expression?

Well, my mother was born in Canada and came to the U.S. when she was 12.

So I heard it all during my youth back in the 50s and 60s.

I mean, maybe once a month, but it was something we all just sort of laughed about.

And we would find, you know, a compliment and then finally get her compliment.

But the fact is that it seems to have vanished now.

I can’t say that I heard it a lot.

But I was just so astonished that this contemporary of mine had never heard it.

Had never heard of a TL.

Right.

She grew up in a different part of the country, and I kind of thought it was maybe a Canadian thing.

Okay.

Well, Linda, we can clear up this mystery for you.

This is really cool.

TL, get this, stands for Trade Last.

Oh, Trade Last.

Okay, that makes sense.

Yeah.

And this was a sort of conversational kind of game, really, that seemed to arise in, oh, I don’t know, about the 1880s, 1890s in this country.

And it was very popular for a while, especially among schoolgirls and kids in college.

And the idea was, the idea of a trade last was, let’s trade compliments and I’ll trade last.

So that’s the same idea that you’re talking about, right?

Right.

We’re trading compliments.

And the use of trade last was pretty widespread across the country.

And then it kind of fell out of favor in the 1940s.

But you heard it in the 50s.

That’s interesting.

Well, you heard TL, which is interesting, too, because it was heard mostly in the Northwest.

So I don’t know if TL bled over into Canada or what?

Northwest as in, well, I’m from Seattle originally.

Oh, okay.

You can hear that the Northwest.

Okay, okay.

Yeah, because TL was used much more in the Northwest.

In your section of the country, in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, in that area,

There’s another variation of it that you may run into there.

Oh, okay.

And that’s last go trade.

It’s hyphenated, L-A-S-T, go and trade.

And that’s an expression that means the same thing, but it’s very, very localized.

It’s very interesting that in your part of the country you may hear that expression.

But it means the same thing as your TL.

Okay, well, I’m really happy to learn this, and I can’t wait to tell my friend.

Excellent.

Well, I appreciate the opportunity to get this cleared up.

Super duper.

Well, Linda, we’re glad to help.

Thank you.

Thank you for calling, Linda.

It was a pleasure talking with you.

Nice talking with you.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

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