I didn’t.
Slate Magazine article about “scumbag” appearing in the NY Times crossword
That’s what we called it when I was in high school in the Bronx in the mid-1960s. In fact, it was rarely used to refer to people, only to condoms.
Like “schmuck,” I’ve always found it a little jarring to hear it used by people who don’t know what it really means.
(Saran Wrap)
(Saran Wrap)
After the prom, I ain’t go no scumbag
(Saran Wrap)
(Saran Wrap)
- — The Fugs.
A rhyme I recall from high school, c. 1966:
In days of old
When knights were bold
And scumbags had not been invented
They wrapped a leaf
Around their beef
And babies were prevented.
It was hilarious when I was 15.
Yep. Learned it from my tenth-grade English teacher.
“I hear you guys using that word a lot, so I’d like to let you know what it really means.” He then wrote “USED CONDOM” on the board in big letters, turned around and gave us all a smug grin.
At that moment, the assistant principal came in the room.
I’m amazed that Will Shortz didn’t know, because I like to believe that Will Shortz knows everything.
In the far reaches of the back of my mind I knew, although it might have taken me some time to remember it if it wasn’t stated in the OP, because I recall reading a teen novel from the 1950s (it wasn’t Red Sky at Morning, I don’t think, but it was like that) and being confused at the character’s big reaction to the word at first, and then finally figuring it out from context. Wow, that was a really long sentence.
Huh. First I’m hearing about that definition. Makes sense, though.
Yeah, I vividly remember this being discussed in Serpico.
I think I first read it in The Wanderers. I also thought it was weird to hear people each other that, since the original definition was obvious to me from context. I don’t remember hearing it used as an insult before the 80s, but that might have been my age.
Although I heard the term long before, I didn’t realize the connection between “condom” and “scumbag” until Peter Maas explicitly equated them in his book serpico. Sometimes I’m just dense.
Guys who insist on using the term “scumbag” might want to reconsider that usage, especially if they want to encourage fellatio.
I knew the connection, but I thought the term was much older – like from the '20s. I’m surprised people were using it in the '60s. Of course, I don’t know what they should have been saying instead. “French letter,” maybe?
Huh. I had absolutely no idea. My ignorance is hereby fought.
Yes. I have known this from a very early age (pre-teens? early teens?) when I read “Serpico”. In it, a cop (can’t remember if it’s Serpico himself) gets a card while recovering in the hospital from a gunshot. It refers to him as a “scumbag” & I distinctly remember the narrator stating something like “a scumbag is a used condom, and is the worst thing a cop can call another cop”.
My mother never restricted my library privileges; had she known exactly what I was reading, she may have reconsidered. 
VCNJ~
Hey, **Veuve[/B[, look up three posts!
I saw them. Thanks.
I didn’t know I couldn’t post my experiences, too.
Mod - please delete my post - thanks.
VCNJ~
Ya don’t have to delete the posts or nothin’ . Some of us just like to be acknowledged when you say the same thing.
The non-vulgar word we used was “rubber,” or, when buying them at the drug store, “prophylactic.” Although the word “condom” was known, it was rarely used, at least where I grew up.
I had no idea, although it makes sense now that I think about it. Had no idea it was a word that people might blink at in the crossword.
Luckily Digital Stimulus isn’t like that.
I just learned in another thread that Whitesnake refers to a penis, so clearly the scumbag things never occurred to me.
Shouldn’t it be “cumbag”?
I can’t believe I am posting this.