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Friday, September 3, 2010

Bad News From the Past / We're Old Ring a Ding Ding

Posted by Cliff Doerksen on 09.03.10 at 08:56 AM

bellringer.jpg
New York Herald, May 5, 1891. Do kids still play this game? I remember it as a pretty common part of the preadolescent repertoire of pranks. It had a whole bunch of different names, the only one of which now comes to mind was something like "Knock on the door ginger," which is remarkably uncatchy but suggests a provenance older than the electrification of houses. The standard praxis was to hit the same house multiple times. I can't recall ever having been so victimized since I became the proprietor of my own door and bell.

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We called it 'Ring and Run,' but there were other, more off color and offensive names as well.

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Posted by Krash630 on 09/03/2010 at 9:46 AM

Tell us more, please.

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Posted by Cliff Doerksen on 09/03/2010 at 11:08 AM

As a child, I knew this practice as "[Very Racist Word] Knocking."

The name was so offensive, I was never even tempted to participate.

-- MrJM

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Posted by MrJM on 09/03/2010 at 11:16 AM

In my time and place, it was called "Ding Dong Ditch." The billy club kept under the bar by tavern owners was called the "[Very Racist Word] Knocker."

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Posted by Ajax on 09/03/2010 at 6:48 PM

"[Very Racist Word] Knocking."

Yeah, that one was in circulation too. In the near total absence of black people, no less.

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Posted by Cliff Doerksen on 09/03/2010 at 10:58 PM
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