Bo-bos
Back in high school, you could insult people by saying “Nice pair of bo-bos!” and a roll of the eyes. This was the standard remark if you weren’t wearing brand name sneakers. Over the years, I couldn’t find anyone other than people from my hometown, and sometimes not even then, that remembered this expression. I came to the conclusion that it was much less common than say, ”Whasup?” So it has always made we wonder, where did this expression come from? Why did we use it and no one else? Was it that lame?
A few weeks ago, someone gave me the lastest issue of Mother Jones magazine (July/August 08). I proceeded to browse through a series of article on America’s prison system. “We are locking up 1 in every 100 American adults–and going bankrupt in the process.” That’s not the only thing that caught my eye. On the last page of the last article, there is a glossary called Block Talk; some prison slang. The first entry is bo-bos: prison issued tennis shoes. So in our southern nowheresville suburban/rural high school we are using prison slang? Not bad for a bunch of hicks.
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