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hands up for the bus conductor

Posted by Bob on December 28, 2006

In Reply to: hands up for the bus conductor posted by R. Berg on December 27, 2006

: : Anyone know why we say hands up for the bus conductor or just conductor when we take off our childrens'jumpers?

: I've never heard this phrase. I'm American; is it common in Britain? Presumably it's spoken to get the kids' arms out of their sleeves. If parents pass it to their offspring just because they heard it as children, it might go back several generations, to a time when buses (or streetcars) had conductors who walked the length of the vehicle collecting fares. ~rb

It's charming, isn't it? Perhaps conductor as in symphony conductor, who would raise both arms and her baton to start. I don't see why passengers would raise both arms to hand over a ticket....

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