I didn`t fall of the turnip truck yesterday

Posted by ESC on February 10, 2009 at 13:15

In Reply to: I didn`t fall of the turnip truck yesterday posted by Baceseras on February 10, 2009 at 13:00:

: : : : : What is the origin of "I didn`t fall of the turnip truck yesterday"?

: : : : I'm not a country lad/gal who just got into town.

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: : : ESC, you're from the US. This has the same meaning as "I wasn't born yesterday", pretty much. An old European story (told to kids too young to have the mysteries of copulation explained to them) used to be that babies were brought by the stork. Go back a generation or two in the US, would they have told children that they'd been brought on the turnip truck, grown on a tree, or whatever? (GC)
: : And my wife reminds me of gooseberry bushes and cabbage patches - and something to do (in the US?) with watermelon seeds. Would turnips (etc) fit into this? (GC)

: Graham - I used to hear this expression, in midwestern US cities, and it carried no connotation of "where babies come from". Rather, it suggests a country bumpkin hitching a ride to town with a truck-farmer: so the meaning is, "I'm not naive; you can't easily fool me." - Bac.

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Babies are found in a patch. They don't make it on the truck. Way, way back in the country, most people didn't own a vehicle. (I'm talking, for example, Abraham in West Virginia in the 50s and 50s.) They had to hitch a ride with the letter-carrier or with whoever was going into town. On White Mountain we were in the country -- but not way, way back in the country. We had daily bus service. So we didn't have to ride the turnip truck.

• I didn`t fall of the turnip truck yesterday Graham Cambray 10/February/09
  • I didn`t fall of the turnip truck yesterday David FG 11/February/09
    • I didn`t fall off the turnip truck yesterday Smokey Stover 11/February/09