Entry in progress—B.P.
Brooklyn Newsstand
3 July 1887, Brooklyn (NY) Daily Egale, pg. 13, col. 1:
“Summer time,” is bread and milk.
Entry in progress—B.P.
Hudson River Valley Heritage Historical Newspapers (NY)
24 March 1888, The Rockland County Journal (NY), “Waiters’ Queer Orders,” pg. 6, col. 1:
A NEWS reporter went into a restaurant on Ann street yesterday and after having given his order to the waiter asked him what was the meaning of the jargon waiters usually shriek at the cook.
(...)
“‘Summer time’ is simply other words for saying ‘Give me a bowl and a soup plate.’”
(...)
—N. Y. News.
13 September 1891, Springfield (IL) Sunday Journal, “The Waiter’s Tenor: How It Sounds in a Cheap New York Restaurant,” pg. 3, col. 5:
In the hot season the newcomer is profoundly puzzled at an order for “Summer time and a plate of grass!”
“Summer time” proves to be cracker and milk. The “grass” is asparagus. A bowlof milk without crackers, or where the waiter supplies himself with the crackers is attained by the request to “see me at the bowl!”
(...)
VICTOR SIMS.
3 November 1891, The Evening Repository (Canton, OH), pg. 5, col. 3:
RESTAURANT WAITERS’ SLANG.
(...)
One bowl of summer time is used for a bowl of milk.
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:
•“Civil engineering implies the existence of criminal engineering” (4/23)
•“Dungeness crab implies the existence of Dragoness crab” (4/23)
•“If you don’t understand why the Electoral College exists… You’re the reason” (4/23)
•Angertainment (anger+ entertainment) (4/23)
•Entry in progress—BP13 (4/23)
More new entries...
Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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