July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.
Innocence of days gone by (5/23/05)
As I See It
By By Diana Dolecki-
Nobody reads the old-fashioned comic strip Snuffy Smith any more except me and some die-hard fans. The comic began way back in 1919 and featured Barney Google (with the goo-goo-googly eyes). In 1934 the main character met his hillbilly cousin, Snuffy, who quickly eclipsed him in popularity. I can’t remember when the last time was that Barney Google appeared in the strip and doubt very much if he will make more than a cameo appearance ever again. Personally, I never did like Barney Google.
King Features Syndicate, which markets the strip, distributes it to more than 900 newspapers in 21 countries and in 11 different languages. Snuffy, his friends and family, have added several phrases to the American vernacular such as, "sweet mama," "horsefeathers," and "heebie-jeebies." I would be interested to see how the colloquialisms translate into other languages. What would the phrase “shif’less skonk” be in French or Italian? Please tell me a still doesn’t translate into a winery. It just isn’t the same thing.
The strip is written in the dialect of the Appalachian hill people and is the only comic I know that is still written in dialect of any kind. Critics complain that real people don’t actually talk like that. I respectfully disagree. My first husband’s father was from Hazard, Ky. My first mother-in-law was from Berea, Ky. We would visit the family several times a year and sleep on “pallets” in their living room. No, they didn’t make us sleep on those wooden things used to stack piles of merchandise. Pallets were simply blankets and quilts placed on the floor. It was as uncomfortable as it sounds.
We would also go see Aunt Carleen who painted china plates and made the best (and only) jam cake I have ever had. Once we visited Uncle Alfred. Uncle Alfred was blind and very old. He and his equally ancient wife lived in a little shack that was barely attached to the side of a mountain. Snuffy and Loweezy would have felt right at home. Even though it was the middle of the summer when we visited, a coal fire was burning in the tiny fireplace and Uncle Alfred was wrapped in an obviously hand-made quilt much like the kind that graces Snuffy and Loweezy’s bed.
Just a few weekends ago we went down to the Red River Gorge in Kentucky and stopped for breakfast at a Waffle House. We were served by a girl with honey in her voice. While we were waiting to pay the check, a young couple came in with their little boy. The father pointed to the seats and asked the child, “What color is this? Do you know?”
When the lad didn’t answer, the father prompted, “Say ray-ed. Ray-ed.” So you see, there are still some places where the color red is pronounced with two syllables. I would guess that they also pronounced the word, “head” as “haid,” much like my daughter’s great-grandmother did.
Snuffy Smith has been written and drawn by several cartoonists over the years. The accents of the characters has been smoothed over as time has passed while still keeping the flavor of the hills. The humor is never mean or vicious. Politics do not visit Hootin’ Holler unless you count the annual re-election of Sheriff Tait. The schoolmarm, Miss Prunelly, never has to deal with gangs, guns, drugs or any of the other woes that plague our schools.
I think that is part of the charm of the strip. It takes us back to the days when life seemed simpler and safer. It portrays a time when it was safe to let your children go fishing down at the creek by themselves and you could run up a tab at the local store. It speaks of when regional accents were accepted and everybody didn’t strive to sound like the actors on television. We have lost much of the color of the language by attempting to homogenize it.
I realize that change is the only constant and that Snuffy Smith won’t be around forever. Henry, Nancy and Sluggo, Dick Tracy and Moon Mullins will be waiting at the old comic strip retirement home when Snuffy finally retires. Maybe they can all go fishin’ together while Loweezy and Elviney hang out over the gossip fence.
I’ll miss their innocence.[[In-content Ad]]
King Features Syndicate, which markets the strip, distributes it to more than 900 newspapers in 21 countries and in 11 different languages. Snuffy, his friends and family, have added several phrases to the American vernacular such as, "sweet mama," "horsefeathers," and "heebie-jeebies." I would be interested to see how the colloquialisms translate into other languages. What would the phrase “shif’less skonk” be in French or Italian? Please tell me a still doesn’t translate into a winery. It just isn’t the same thing.
The strip is written in the dialect of the Appalachian hill people and is the only comic I know that is still written in dialect of any kind. Critics complain that real people don’t actually talk like that. I respectfully disagree. My first husband’s father was from Hazard, Ky. My first mother-in-law was from Berea, Ky. We would visit the family several times a year and sleep on “pallets” in their living room. No, they didn’t make us sleep on those wooden things used to stack piles of merchandise. Pallets were simply blankets and quilts placed on the floor. It was as uncomfortable as it sounds.
We would also go see Aunt Carleen who painted china plates and made the best (and only) jam cake I have ever had. Once we visited Uncle Alfred. Uncle Alfred was blind and very old. He and his equally ancient wife lived in a little shack that was barely attached to the side of a mountain. Snuffy and Loweezy would have felt right at home. Even though it was the middle of the summer when we visited, a coal fire was burning in the tiny fireplace and Uncle Alfred was wrapped in an obviously hand-made quilt much like the kind that graces Snuffy and Loweezy’s bed.
Just a few weekends ago we went down to the Red River Gorge in Kentucky and stopped for breakfast at a Waffle House. We were served by a girl with honey in her voice. While we were waiting to pay the check, a young couple came in with their little boy. The father pointed to the seats and asked the child, “What color is this? Do you know?”
When the lad didn’t answer, the father prompted, “Say ray-ed. Ray-ed.” So you see, there are still some places where the color red is pronounced with two syllables. I would guess that they also pronounced the word, “head” as “haid,” much like my daughter’s great-grandmother did.
Snuffy Smith has been written and drawn by several cartoonists over the years. The accents of the characters has been smoothed over as time has passed while still keeping the flavor of the hills. The humor is never mean or vicious. Politics do not visit Hootin’ Holler unless you count the annual re-election of Sheriff Tait. The schoolmarm, Miss Prunelly, never has to deal with gangs, guns, drugs or any of the other woes that plague our schools.
I think that is part of the charm of the strip. It takes us back to the days when life seemed simpler and safer. It portrays a time when it was safe to let your children go fishing down at the creek by themselves and you could run up a tab at the local store. It speaks of when regional accents were accepted and everybody didn’t strive to sound like the actors on television. We have lost much of the color of the language by attempting to homogenize it.
I realize that change is the only constant and that Snuffy Smith won’t be around forever. Henry, Nancy and Sluggo, Dick Tracy and Moon Mullins will be waiting at the old comic strip retirement home when Snuffy finally retires. Maybe they can all go fishin’ together while Loweezy and Elviney hang out over the gossip fence.
I’ll miss their innocence.[[In-content Ad]]
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