In the song “Do You Remember These”, the Statler Brothers wax nostalgic about fads of the 40’s & 50’s. I understand most of the references except for “Peggin’ your pants” and “Frog in your arm”.
I Goggled the two phrases and only got websites reprinting the lyrics to the song, but no explanations.
Anyone?
“Pegging you pants” means folding over the leg near the cuff, then rolling up once or twice to hold the fold in-place. This was considered cool in the '30s, I think. It’s certainly much less goofy than some current fashions, like baseball caps worn backwards. Pegging pants is also functional for bike riders, keeping fabric from getting caught in the chain.
I have no idea what the other expression means.
WAG: Rolling a pack of cigarettes in the sleeve of your tee shirt?
With a pocketless shirt, it was the only way to carry your smokes…they’d get crushed if you put them in your Levi’s pocket, and the boys hanging around down at the drugstore would razz you unmercifully if you carried a purse.
And it would look like you had a frog in your arm, if you were under the impression that frogs were hard and rectangular and carcinogenic.
In the '60s “pegging your pants” meant getting someone with a sewing machine to taper the legs (starting at the crotch and sewing down the inseam) of the pants to make them extremely tight. My brother always liked his Levi’s pegged to the point where he could just get his foot through the bottom.
And don’t forget, pegged jeans were popular in the 80s. EVERYONE at my school pegged their jeans. Going with unpegged jeans was SERIOUSLY uncool-people would accuse you of wearing, “bell bottoms”, no matter how tapered your pants were.
Of course now, I wouldn’t be caught dead with pegs and I insist that most of my jeans be flares.
Though I have no idea how old the expression is, I have been on the receiving end of numerous ‘frogs.’ It’s a peculiar way of hitting a certain spot on the upper arm (usually using a fist with the middle finger pushed out, so that the last joint is between the second joints of the two neighboring fingers) that makes for a small, concentrated area of pain. I think it’s due to hitting on/between specific muscles that cramp up. It REALLY, REALLY hurts, in case you’re wondering.
No new info to add, just wanted to say that in the 80’s my super-hip friends and I referred to pegging one’s pants as “tight-rolling”.
I vaguely recall, from my childhood in the 1960’s, that a “frog in the arm” was when you would make a nonstandard fist, with the knuckle of the middle finger extended somewhat, and punch another person in the upper arm/shoulder.
The extended knuckle sharpened the blow to a smaller point, which would cause an intense throbbing sensation in the recipient’s shoulder.
HERE’S the straight dope on “pegged” pants-----
In essence can be done on any REGULAR “trousers”-------
Lower portion to is tapered to the cuff leaving about an 8 inch opening for the foot.
In the 50S----the guys wore them DRAPED. I’m pretty sure ELVIS wore “drapes”. BLACK DENIM TROUSERS were draped.
In the 40s----the ZOOT SUIT had pegged pants.
I concur with the fist-knuckle for the “frog” tho I’d never heard it called that.
And dat’s da name of dat tune.
Grease would have me believe it was popular in the 1950s, too.
The “frog in your arm” punch sounds similar to my area’s “monkey bumps”. After getting a “monkey bump” punch, your arm, leg, whatever would instantly swell and hurt like hell.