A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

Recent entries:
“Instead of ‘British Summer Time’ and ‘Greenwich Mean Time’ we should just call them ‘Oven Clock Correct Time’...” (3/28)
“Has anyone here ever drank a pint of tequila? I know it’s a long shot” (3/28)
“A pint of tequila? That’s a long shot” (3/28)
Entry in progress—BP5 (3/28)
Entry in progress—BP4 (3/28)
More new entries...

A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z


Entry from August 15, 2006
“Summer on Yams, Winter on Yankees” & “Three seasons—orange, vegetable and invalid”

It has been said that there are three seasons in Florida—“orange, vegetable and invalid.” It’s also been said that Floridians “live in yams in the summer and Yankees in the winter.”
 
Both sayings date to the nineteenth century and are of historical interest today.
 
 
American Heritage Dictionary of American Quotations
edited by Margaret Miner and Hugh Rawson
New York: Penguin Reference
1997
Pg. 190:
In summer the crackers live off the yams; in winter they live off Yanks.
—ANONYMOUS, Florida saying, in H. L. Mencken,
A New Dictionary of Quotations on Historical Principles, 1942
     
26 February 1883, New York Times, pg. 4:
A Southern correspondent of the Hartford (Conn.) Times says that there are three seasons in Florida—the orange, vegetable and invalid season—and that the last pays the best. Somebody had said before him that in the summer the natives of Florida live on sweet potatoes and sugar-cane, and in the Winter on the Yankees.
 
2 March 1883, Washington Post, pg. 2:
There are said to be three seasons in Florida—the orange, vegetable and invalid—the last paying the best. In the summer the Floridians live on yams and sugar cane, and in the winter on Yankees.

Posted by {name}
Florida (Sunshine State Dictionary) • Tuesday, August 15, 2006 • Permalink


Commenting is not available in this channel entry.