Wrestling Jackets

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Denise.

I’m calling from Springfield, Illinois.

Okay.

Sure.

My question is, when I was coming up, let me say this because I think this matters. We’re black, African-American, and we already know that there are tons of sayings that, you know, we always say, oh, black people say. So when my family, we were coming up, my mom used to always say, you know, if you’d ask for money or something like that, she’d say, I’m so broke, I couldn’t buy a louse and a wrestling jacket. And, you know, she would just say it, and that we knew what she meant. And she also used to say something else. But she used to say that we all knew what she meant.

And so one day when I was probably in my 30s, and I called my mom and I said, what does that mean? And she would just always say, what do you mean? What does it mean? It means I’m broke. It means we’re broke. I can’t buy a louse and a wrestling jacket. And I said, you know, that doesn’t mean anything to me, Mom, exactly what. Well, I’ve even, you know, I’ve been writing your show, and I’ve even talked to other friends, other black friends, and they’re going, oh, yeah. I mean, we don’t know what it means, but we’ve all heard it. And I’ve talked to white friends who are going, what? I’ve never heard anything like that.

Oh, interesting. So clearly it’s a phrase used, you know, in the black community among old people. But the only thing they can tell you is what you can already decipher. That means we don’t have any money. So I just thought, you know, after discovering your show, I thought, well, I’m going to ask them if they’d ever heard this or where it came from.

Well, I’ve got to say that this is a great little expression. I’m not surprised that it belongs to the older generation. And I’m also not surprised that it comes from an older generation of black folks because it is closely tied to black Americans and black English. And you will find that particular expression or actually something almost the same in many books that talk about American speech from African Americans.

So the version that I find here is most common, though, is not a louse, but a mosquito in a wrestling jacket.

Really?

Yeah. But what’s really interesting about those is that both of them have to do with something small. And so any kind of clothing for a small insect wouldn’t take very much fabric and wouldn’t be very expensive. And the whole point is just it’s like a really tiny piece of clothing and you still can’t afford it, right?

Oh, yeah. And a wrestling jacket, what it is, it’s an outfit designed to, I think, like a boxer, I think to keep you cool before you go on.

Okay. But maybe that’s, maybe we’re thinking the same thing.

Well, are we thinking about a little bitty insect inside a great big giant jacket?

No. Is that what you picture, Denise?

No. We actually, you know, if you knew my mother, we just knew we were broke. But when I did try to visualize it, I always thought of a straight jacket, not a wrestling jacket. But I don’t know what a wrestling jacket looks like.

Yeah, come to think of it. And I had no idea what a louse was, so how a louse would look in a wrestling jacket, I could not conjure that up in my brain.

Okay, okay.

Yeah, well, a louse we can help you with. I mean, that’s the singular of lice. Also a small insect, right?

Yeah, yeah, like a little, little, little bitty one. But, gee, a louse in a wrestling jacket. I like that. There are a few others I find here. Do you know any of these?

I’m so broke I couldn’t buy a crippled crab a crutch if I had a forest of small trees.

No, never heard of that.

Never heard that one.

Well, this isn’t talking about your shoes, but it’s the same kind of thing about being broke. I’m so broke that the soles of my shoes are so thin that if I stepped on a dime, I could tell whether it was heads or tails.

No, never heard that one.

How about I’m so broke I can’t afford to pay attention?

I’ve heard that.

You have heard that one.

Yeah, yeah. I’ll tell you what. If you want a little bit more about this, there’s a book by a fellow named Lawrence Levine. It’s called Black Culture and Black Consciousness. And he talks about these kinds of expressions and other things like the pearls of wisdom that the community shares with each other or that parents share with children or grandparents share with grandchildren. And I’d recommend that because he has something to say about this particular expression as well.

I will get that. I’ve listened to you make reference to when you had other black callers. And if I can just tell you one thing, Grant, I love the show, first of all.

Thank you.

When you talk about black language, you have such an appreciation for it. And I think a lot of times black, especially in this generation, they get such a rap for it not being real talk. But you always honor it like as an art form. And that just pleases me. Just really, really a great deal because it’s not slop, you know.

I got to tell you, I’m… We can’t appreciate all of it, but…

I’m mutually pleased that I am being heard and that my message is being received. And someone is understanding exactly what I’m saying, and you’re making me really happy over here.

Well, cool. Great. This has been exciting. Denise, thank you so much for calling us today. Let us know what you think of that book, all right?

I will do. I will do that. Thank you very much.

All right. Bye-bye.

Thanks, Denise. Bye-bye.

If you’ve got some favorite I’m-so-broke-that or you-are-so-broke-that, then pass them along an email to words@waywordradio.org or leave them in your best performance voice on our voicemail at 1-877-929-9673 and maybe we’ll play them on the air.