phrases, sayings, idioms and expressions at

Skeezix

Posted by Barbara Weakley on March 31, 2004

In Reply to: Skeezix posted by ESC on March 31, 2004

: : : : Back in the '40s, my sisters and I had several
: : : : books about "The Skeezix and the Pipsewah" Not sure
: : : : of spelling of Pipsewah. Does anyone else remember
: : : : these books?

: : : I don't remember the books. But I've heard the term "skeezix." I found several books by searching under that word at used-book sites. Are these the same characters as the comic strip, "Gasoline Alley"? (I googled and was brought right back here where R. Berg had posted the following address: home.swipnet.se/roland/skeezix.html )

: : My curiosity is piqued, although I can't offer any information on Skeezix and the Pipsewah. I hope somebody can elucidate. The word "skeezicks," before the comic strip "Gasoline Alley," meant "good-for-nothing, rascal, rogue (Now usu. playfully of children)," acc. to the OED, which describes the word as American slang, and cites it from 1850 et seq. A posting on a Web-site that deals with computer games and much else talks about "Skeezix and the bad Pipsewah" in connection, I think, with Uncle Wiggly. (Could this be a computer game?) I think the author of the posting, or of the game, must have read books about these characters. Pipsewah is reminiscent of the pipsissewa, a plant sometimes called bitter wintergreen and sometimes mispronounced, but I don't think there's any connection except the phonetic one. I was a faithful reader of Gasoline Alley, and wondered where the author got the name for his main character. One of our cats was named Skeezix. SS

: It all sounds very familiar.

These were not the Gasoline Alley characters.
They were in several books, and were quite
possibly in the Uncle Wiggley series as we
also had several Uncle Wiggley books.

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