Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Squirrel can, wreck pan, and biscuit-shooter

Shortly after referring to the Dictionary of the American West  last week, I was shocked and saddened to read that the dictionary's author, Win Blevins, had passed. An award-winning writer known for his "mastery of western lore," Win will be missed. May his memory and his works live on. 

Once the Fourth of July feasting is done, it's time for the merrymakers to pick up their plates and stagger from the table to the squirrel can and from thence to the wreck pan.

Squirrel can and wreck pan are two cowboy slang terms that might come in handy for those in charge of the modern-day kitchen.

According to Win Blevins' Dictionary of the American West, a squirrel can is "a big can used by the camp cook for scraps." The same dictionary defines the wreck pan as "the tub for dirty dishes at the chuck wagon. Also called the wreck tub."

So, give your resident biscuit-shooter (aka "cook") a break, and do your bit to clean up after chowing down.

Please clean up after yourselves when you're done eating, boys.
Cowboys eating out on the range, chuck wagon in background 
Date 1880 (Library of Congress)

Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Kick up your heels at a shindig

How many of you plan to go to a shindig on July 4th and kick up your heels?

There's a lot of unintentional legwork in that question. Let's tackle both the word shindig and the phrase kick up your heels, and see if we can't wrestle them to the ground, slang-o-rama style.
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Shindig, meaning "dance, party, lively gathering," gets a nod from the Online Etymological Dictionary, which notes it first appeared in 1871. According to OED, this word probably evolved from shindy "a spree, merrymaking" (1821)—which also refers to "a game like hockey"—or perhaps from shinty, which is the name of a Scottish game akin to hockey (1771). Merriam-Webster says shindig first danced onto the scene in 1842.

Hmmmm. I sense some uncertainty as to when shindig first arrived on the scene.

I checked Google Ngram Viewer for early appearances, did a little digging, and found it in Across the Atlantic: Letters from France, Switzerland, Germany, Italy, and England by Charles H. Haeseler, dated 1868. The following passage appears in a passage describing a snowball fight in the Alps:

As for kick up one's heels, nowadays we pretty much use it in the sense defined by Merriam-Webster: to show sudden delight or have a lively time. However, according to The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer, its original meaning was much less... ah... lively:

kick up one's heels: Enjoy oneself... This expression originated about 1600 with a totally different meaning, "to be killed."

Ee-ow!! Although, perhaps in these days (and nights) of COVID-19, kicking up one's heels at a big ol' shindig where folks are all jammed together might result in a condition that is closer to the original meaning of the phrase.

So, whatever you do to celebrate the 4th, please stay safe and err on the side of caution. As for me, I'm going to see if I have a red-white-and-blue mask to wear that day if I should venture out in public.... 

If you attend a shindig on the 4th, please add a little distance while you kick up your heels...
WikiArt - 4th of July 1819 in Philadelphia by John Lewis Krimmel

Blog Hop Part 4: Why?

Why do I write what I do?

That's the last question for the four-part blog hop (for previous questions and answers, just scroll back to the beginning of the week).

Now, to the answer.

I "fell into" writing mysteries set in the West because that's where my more recent (past couple generations) of family history resides.

Aside: Go back a couple more generations on my mother's mother's side, and there's the Hasbroucks of Newburgh, New York ... their house "lives on" in history as one of George Washington's headquarters during the Revolution: http://www.nysparks.com/historic-sites/17/details.aspx.... and ain't that appropriate to the 4th of July! I even have a faded photograph of the Hasbroucke House with my G'ma Elsie's handwritten explanation of the family connections on the back. (Tried to photograph it, but too much reflection, oh well.)

Hasbrouck House (George Washington's Headquarters). Happy July 4th!

Sidestep over to my father's father's side, and you quickly bang into the DuPonts... here's a snap of my Granddad Parker and my dear Uncle Walt from the DuPont archives: http://digital.hagley.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p268001coll8/id/5936/rec/4).

I came to Leadville and found its history so fascinating I just never left.

Just like old photographs, the truths and stories of the past fade over time and eventually turn into dust. I'm doing my very small part to bring bits and pieces of the past to present awareness through fiction. And have fun at the same time!

Don't let them fade away...