# Origin of the "get off my lawn" meme **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 28, 2012, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-get-off-my-lawn-meme/617085 "2012-03-28T20:58:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-get-off-my-lawn-meme/617085/21 "2012-03-29T18:36:11Z")
While she doesn’t actually say those words, it seems like in [To Kill a Mockingbird (1963)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056592/), the ancient, cranky Mrs. Dubose (played by 48-year-old Ruth White) fusses at the kids who are in her yard. The attitude was present, if not the exact quote. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-get-off-my-lawn-meme/617085/22 "2012-03-29T18:58:06Z")
Here’s one data point: In a 1990 concert, singer [Randy Stonehill](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Stonehill) ended a performance of his song “Turning Thirty” by joking that soon he’ll be singing _I’m turning sixty Get off my lawn._ ([video here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=qcGTH1fTgcE#t=291s)) ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-get-off-my-lawn-meme/617085/23 "2012-03-29T19:11:53Z")
When I was a kid, back in the '50s, a lot of people had just moved to the suburbs, and were really into growing perfect lawns. I remember lawns that looked like perfectly-manicured green carpets. Nobody - man or beast - was permitted to step foot on these lawns. One of my neighbors is still like that, and he obviously has OCD. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-get-off-my-lawn-meme/617085/24 "2012-03-29T19:19:04Z")
I live in a suburban neighborhood. My street makes a 90 degree turn and my house is the one on the inside corner. I have a reasonably nice lawn and kids cut across it all the time on their bikes or just running. I don’t care at all. As much of a crank as I can be, I still think that kids running around and having fun is what makes a neighborhood so long as they’re not purposefully vandalizing or stealing things. One time a Mom saw her kids run across my corner and I could see her bracing for my reaction and was visibly relieved when I smiled and waved. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-get-off-my-lawn-meme/617085/25 "2012-03-29T21:12:46Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I can date it back as far as the Turf Protection Law passed by Congress in 1876. I like to think it started there. I’ll be damned! [You were serious](http://artandhistory.house.gov/highlights.aspx?action=view&intID=171):eek::eek::eek::eek::eek: ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2012, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-get-off-my-lawn-meme/617085/26 "2012-03-31T05:47:01Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > 1. In fact, the anniversary is coming up next month. What TV show was that? The first season of Abe Lincoln, Vampire Slayer? ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2012, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-get-off-my-lawn-meme/617085/27 "2012-03-31T10:27:59Z")
Earliest TV reference I can cite was from **Grace Under Fire**. Wade, the neighbor, showed the face he uses to scare kids and jokingly snarls “You kids get off my lawn!” This would’ve been mid-90s. ---
**Author:** ![singular1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ba9def/32.png) [@singular1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/singular1)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2012, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-get-off-my-lawn-meme/617085/28 "2012-03-31T13:05:45Z")
I had it repeatedly yelled at me and my sister by a neighbor since 1962. Said neighbor was also a hated uncle, and he was always referred to as Uncle Prick. Good times… ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2012, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-get-off-my-lawn-meme/617085/29 "2012-03-31T17:08:21Z")
I feel like the phrasing I hear more often is “_keep_ off my lawn”, and a quick search of Google Books indicates that this phrase was associated with cranky old people long before the television era. One of the earlier hits, from a 1908 issue of _[Mount Tom: An All Outdoors Magazine](http://books.google.com/books?id=HkXyAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22keep%20off%20my%20lawn%22&pg=RA1-PA62#v=onepage&q=%22keep%20off%20my%20lawn%22&f=false)_, refers to people putting signs in their yards reading “Keep off my Lawn”. From the context it seems like the reader was expected to be familiar with such signs, so they may have been around for a while even in 1908. There’s an even earlier hit from a short story called “[King Coal](http://books.google.com/books?id=J68vAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22keep%20off%20my%20lawn%22&pg=PA626#v=onepage&q=%22keep%20off%20my%20lawn%22&f=false)” by Leslie P. Smith, published in 1904. The story is about a crow that lives at the London Zoo, and he “appointed himself special guard of the lawn” and squawks and flaps at people who walk on the grass. Children make up a song to mimic him: “Get on the walk-walk-walk! None o’ your talk-talk-talk! Keep off my lawn; G’wan! G’wan! Get up and walk-walk-walk!” The same story mentions that there is a “Keep-off-the-grass” sign. There are a few hits from the '50s and early '60s that seem to involve an older homeowner yelling at a young person. There aren’t previews available for all of them, but a 1953 book called _[Ready-made Family](http://books.google.com/books?id=yVgNAQAAIAAJ&q=%22keep+off+my+lawn%22&dq=%22keep+off+my+lawn%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=uTN3T4X9FoXg0QGR0NCxDQ&ved=0CGgQ6AEwBg)_ by Frances Solomon Murphy has a passage where a man “Keep off my lawn!” at a boy taking a shortcut across his yard, and a 1963 play called _[Never Too Late](http://books.google.com/books?id=z97FD1i9mlQC&lpg=PA63&dq=%22keep%20off%20my%20lawn%22&pg=PA63#v=onepage&q=%22keep%20off%20my%20lawn%22&f=false)_ has a man yelling “Acting like a couple of hoodlums! Don’t you know what time it is? And keep off my lawn!” at some drunks. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2012, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-get-off-my-lawn-meme/617085/30 "2012-04-01T00:40:29Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > I’ll be damned! [You were serious](http://artandhistory.house.gov/highlights.aspx?action=view&intID=171):eek::eek::eek::eek::eek: Yep. Anything for a laugh, but if I can fight a little ignorance along the way, I sleep good at night. ---
**Author:** ![Reloy3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c68b51/32.png) [@Reloy3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reloy3)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2012, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-get-off-my-lawn-meme/617085/31 "2012-04-02T18:03:08Z")
I will add a Data Point - the underrated 1989 Dream a Little Dream movie starring the Corys (Haim and Feldman) and Meridith Salanger. Jason Robards repeatedly tells the kids to get off of his lawn until mystical forces places him into the mind of Mr. Feldman as a teen. As he grows to understand the trials of the average teenage waste-of-oxygen of the late 80s, he eventually (upon his return to his elderly state) invites said oxygen wasters to tread on his lawn. The newly ennobled teens then respectfully go around. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-the-get-off-my-lawn-meme/617085.md?page=1)