Interesting

[Bri]

On the job I was working on today, the owners had a framed 10 dollar bill, from the bank of Louisana. On it in one corner was 10, and in the other corner dix(french) This bill was called the dixie and that is where that word originated.

Things you learn when you should be grouting eh?

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[Toddl]

Any idea what year it was?

[Bri]

I would assume is was pre-civil war?

[Toddl]

It's probably worth a lot less than if it was put in the bank and earned compound interest. :D

[John Bridge]

I'm afraid that's just one of the many stories surrounding the word "Dixie." Some folks, for example, think it might have had something to do with the Mason-Dixon Line. :)

[Bri]

That's interesting also JB. I wonder if they invented the paper cup down there too.;)

[John Bridge]

I wonder. :)

[Bri]

Evan Morris, aka the Word Detective, examines the possible origins of "Dixie" in detail. He offers a theory about a Manhattan slave owner named Johan Dixie or Dixy. When slavery was abolished in the North, he sent his slaves to the South. His slaves remembered Dixie's land as a place of better treatment. Other theories suggest that Dixie was simply a kindly slave owner, and word got around among slaves that Dixie's land was idyllic.

UrbanLegends.com looks to the book A Dictionary of Americanisms on Historical Principles for possible origins for the term. In addition to the slave owner theory, this site explains that ten-dollar notes issued by the Citizens Bank of Louisiana before the Civil War were known as "dixes" or "dixies." The currency was printed in both English and French, and the French word for ten is "dix," so Louisiana may have been referred to as Dixie land. Later, the name spread to include the entire South.

The third popular theory is that the South got the title "Dixie" from the Mason-Dixon line. This is the border between Pennsylvania and Maryland, and it's named after the two British men, Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, who surveyed the area in 1763. The Missouri Compromise of 1820 made this line the boundary between free states and slave states, and it's still considered the dividing line between North and South.

While the origin of the word Dixie is questionable, few doubt that it was the song "Dixie" that popularized the term. Written in 1858 by Ohioan Daniel Decatur Emmett for a New York minstrel show, "Dixie" may be the oldest recorded use of the word in reference to the South. A contemporary of Emmett said this of the song's line "I wish I was in Dixie":

This colloquial expression was not, as most people suppose, a Southern phrase, but first appeared among the circus people of the North. In early fall, when nipping frosts would overtake the tented wanderers, the boys would think of the genial warmth of that section for which they were heading, and the common expression would be, "Well, I wish I was down in Dixie."
No one really knows why those Northern circus people called the South "Dixie," but the song became a huge hit, and it was played at the inauguration of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. This Confederate anthem continues to be popular in the South, despite the controversy about what it may symbolize.




Hmm?..not one mention of paper cups?


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:(

[Bri]

In 1900, in the United States there were no drinking fountains. Instead, public drinking dippers in water barrels were widely used by thirsty travelers. One young man, named Hugh Moore, decided the practice was unsanitary. He wanted first of all to make pure spring water available, and he wanted a way for people to drink it which would be germ free. Moore designed a cup made of paper. These paper cups seemed clumsy at first, but a drink of spring water from a clean paper cup was so inviting that thousands tried it.
Moore installed cup-vending machines at trolley line comers, and on a hot day a five-gallon bottle could be emptied in an hour. Sales of the "Health Cup" were assured once Moore succeeded in having them placed in railroad cars. With the name changed to Dixie Cup, his sanitary paper containers became standard items on trains and in soda fountains. By 1960, Dixie Cups were selling at the rate of more than fifty million dollars worth per year.


Hey these history lessons are fun!:)

[John Bridge]

I wish I knew more about the history of the South. I've always loved the song, "Dixie." I don't think it connotes anything but a love of country. I also like all the old Stephen Foster songs. All they are is good music. :)

[flatfloor]

Bri, that's pure balderdash. Everybody knows St Brendan invented the paper cup. He invented it to award a prize to the winning team in a curious Canadian game called hockey. The man who actually made the cup was a sailor named Stanley.

[Bri]

Hey, there's only one CUP invented by Canadians...and yes, it has to do with hockey.;) :D

[John Bridge]

You tellin' me the Stanley Cup is actually paper and made by Dixie? What about the America's Cup?

[flatfloor]

Yes John that's true. :yeah:

Now the America's Cup is another story, ya see St Brendan.......:D

[Bri]

Sorry guys, I heard the America's Cup was outsourced to Taiwan.:( :)

[Steven Hauser]

Hmm.

I think the athletic cup came from America.

And no Jim,

St. Brenden had nothin to do with it. It seems Mrs. O'leary's husband proved that beyond argument.

:yeah:

[flatfloor]

Infidels....misanthropes :p