phrases, sayings, idioms and expressions at

Skeezix books

Posted by ESC on March 31, 2004

In Reply to: Skeezix posted by Barbara Weakley 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.

I went to a used book site online and found several copies available. Not the one you mentioned though.

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