South Jersey

Ben Ruset

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Oct 12, 2004
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Monmouth County
www.benruset.com
My grandmother, originally from Kentucky, used "crick" all the time. I've always heard it said by folks south of the Mason-Dixon line, not so much South Jerseyans.

I have to say, "Cedar Crick" sounds so much better than "Cedar Creek!"
 
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pineywoman

Explorer
Aug 24, 2012
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Jerseyman! Love it. The word I hate most is "Ax." For example..let me ax you something!! I do not see "wooder" or water as the proper term and would say that is the most common mistake of us all!! Haha! Great great read as always...humbled.... Mr. Jerseyman.
 

manumuskin

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Jul 20, 2003
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millville nj
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I once had a coworker ask me why I didn't AX him because I could not find something,he was being an ass when he said it so I informed him I did not want to spend the next twenty in jail.He was totally bewildered as to why I said that.It never occured to him that if I AXED him he might now live to tell about it.he was a prisoner off on work leave anyway so a good AXING may have been preferable.
 
Pineywoman and Manumuskin:

You will generally find that the mispronunciation of “ask” as “ax” is an ethnic-cultural language tag, almost bordering on ebonics, which I often view as a purposeful affectation. Contrarily, the seemingly strange pronunciation of the word “water” is more of a regional dialectal variation based more on how a particular area expresses vowels contained within a word. A Bostonian would have a completely different take on “water” or “creek” than someone from South Jersey or even the Midwest.

Best regards,
Jerseyman
 

pineywoman

Explorer
Aug 24, 2012
427
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You should have "AXED" him Manumuskin.. and sent him "Swimming with the fishes" another Jersey expression. Hahahahaha! LOVE THIS! Bostonians are funny in how they say "CAR" as "CAH." I also find it hilarious when folks say we have no distinctive accent. That is very far from the truth.

When someone says "AX" I cringe. It literally is like fingers on a chalkboard.
 

manumuskin

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Jul 20, 2003
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millville nj
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Yes AX man was an ebonic.My mother in law is from the Mass R.I. border and she routinely leaves R's out of where they belong and adds them where the don't.She drives a CAH and her grandaughter Sheena has become Sheener.
 

Boyd

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Jul 31, 2004
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Ben's Branch, Stephen Creek
In a nuclear reactor, an "Axe Man" has a very different meaning. :D http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scram

Scram is usually cited as being an acronym for safety control rod axe man; however, the term is probably a backronym. The actual axe man at the first chain-reaction was Norman Hilberry. In a letter to Dr. Raymond Murray (January 21, 1981), Hilberry wrote:

When I showed up on the balcony on that December 2, 1942 afternoon, I was ushered to the balcony rail, handed a well sharpened fireman's ax and told, "if the safety rods fail to operate, cut that manila rope." The safety rods, needless to say, worked, the rope was not cut... I don't believe I have ever felt quite as foolish as I did then. ...I did not get the SCRAM [Safety Control Rod Axe Man] story until many years after the fact. Then one day one of my fellows who had been on Zinn's construction crew called me Mr. Scram. I asked him, "How come?" And then the story.

The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission gives contradictory information. Their glossary supports this etymology of SCRAM, stating:

Also known as a “reactor trip,” “scram” is actually an acronym for “safety control rod axe man,” the worker assigned to insert the emergency rod on the first reactor (the Chicago Pile) in the United States.

However, a May 17, 2011, entry on their official blog from NRC historian Tom Welleck argues that this account is effectively an urban legend and arose many years after the event.

Articles from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) indicate that the term stands for "safety cut rope axe man", referring in that case to the early neutronic safety mechanism of using a person equipped with an axe to cut the rope suspending the control rods over the Chicago Pile nuclear reactor, at which point the rods would fall by gravity into the reactor core, shutting the reactor down. Specifically, Wallace Koehler, a technician working for the Manhattan Project at Chicago Pile 1, under Stagg Field at the University of Chicago, and later a research physicist at ORNL, reportedly said that Enrico Fermi coined the term as this acronym. Although Koehler did not serve as a rope-cutting control rod axe-man, he was responsible for dumping a bucket of aqueous cadmium solution into the reactor if reactor period entered into the sub-optimal range.
 

Spung-Man

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Jan 5, 2009
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Richland, NJ
loki.stockton.edu
Jerseyman, this is one of my all time favorites of things you have ferreted out! For instance, the meaning of Cubby Hollow south of Bridgeton now makes sense (cubby: a little hollow-square cabin: charcoal industry). This seems an appropriate fit. The site is on the Cohansey Trail near where it crossed the Maurice River to Pamphylla Spring.

The Cohansey was a byway well trodden by colliers, particularly Blacks including the Still family. The path ran from Greenwich (Lenape = Cohansey) to Springtown to Bridgeton to Parvins Mill to Buena to Mays Landing, and thence shoreward. Thanks again.

S-M
 

pineywoman

Explorer
Aug 24, 2012
427
48
Bridgeton was the most industrious town in all of NJ back in the day. It held 2 prestigious womens academies and considered an industrial "Mecca" after the Civil War. It is so sad to see its decline. The 80s killed them when all the factories up and left. The zoo is great. Free. Not many people are aware of it. Love it!

Don't forget "Crik Stomping." That was a fun pastime of mine.
 
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