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hands up for the bus conductor

Posted by R. Berg on December 27, 2006

In Reply to: Hands up for the bus conductor posted by Dotty Mooney on December 26, 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

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