Wednesday, June 29, 2022

Hill, Sam

As a college student, I worked in the housewares departments of two discount department stores. These days, shoppers still sometimes ask me where things are. On more than one occasion a shopper has told me that they thought I was an employee. I must have the right look.

Today, as I strode a main aisle in our friendly neighborhood multinational retailer, an older fellow asked me, “Do you know where in the Sam Hill the mouthwash is?”

I didn’t hesitate: “Same aisle as the toothpaste, two aisles down.”

As for Sam Hill, he’s in Green’s Dictionary of Slang.

comments: 8

Daughter Number Three said...

You should see me in a plant nursery... I can't keep my mouth shut, opining about plants to other customers. People always think I work there and ask me where things are. (Which I cannot help with most of the time.)

Michael Leddy said...

As a novice assistant in a flower-garden effort, I’d be grateful that kind of opining.

Anonymous said...

Back when I flew a lot, I had some passengers mistake me for a Delta flight attendant as I was wearing navy pants and navy sweater and happened to be standing in the middle galley reading a magazine while passengers were boarding. I just pointed to where their seats were.


Thanks for the reference to the Green's dictionary of slang. That one is a keeper!

kirsten

Michael Leddy said...

You’re welcome, Kirsten. And that’s a great story. Just play along with them!

Do you remember when Cosmo Kramer became Moviefone? (I hope that’s the right spelling.)

Anonymous said...

Kramer as Moviefone -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XagGEi_n_ok

I had totally forgotten him doing that.

When the first season of Seinfeld came out, only a few of us (that I knew) were watching it. It was almost like a secret handshake!

kirsten

Michael Leddy said...

Lucky people! The days when a network gave a show time to find an audience seem long gone.

Slywy said...

I worked with a woman who used that expression all the time. So much that I picked it up. It wasn't in my parents' lexicon.

Michael Leddy said...

I wonder if people deliberately use it to avoid the word “hell” or if they just know it as an expression.