Back in the '80s I worked at Edwards AFB. One of the engineers i worked with had been in the USAAF in WWII, and one day he mentioned a ‘short snorter’. I don’t remember exactly what it was. I’ve heard a few different explanations: It was a dollar bill (or pound note) one carried to buy the last round of drinks. It was a dollar or pound that was signed by two friends and then torn in half before a mission/deployment. Each man would take half of the note, and present them to each other when they met again (when they would procede to get drunk together). Each man would produce a bill/note and each would be signed by everyone in the group as a souvenier of the occasion. It was some sort of drinking game. It’s like being a Turtle.
So which is it? One of them? All of them? None of them? If it was a game, how was it played? I can’t ask Bob, since we’d have lost contact over the last 20 years even if he wasn’t dead. Which he is.
Most “short snorters” which come into our coin shop are indeed from the estates of GIs from 1942-1945. Seldom are they torn. They have anywhere from 2-15 signatures.
But the origin of the term goes back before the war…
So it sounds as if the short snorter was started at one gathering where signatures were gathered, and more signatures were added to it during the bearer’s travels. When it was filled, he’d attach another note (often the local currency) and continue to collect the signatures of his drinking partners. When the original group (or any group?) of ‘short snorters’ gathered, the one with the shortest snorter would buy a round of drinks. Right?
To expand on the definition as it was known in and about 1942–If you crossed the ocean by air, you were a member of a “club.” You got people to sign a banknote: In the case of an American, it was usually a dollar bill. If you were British, it was a 10 shilling note. The “game” was that, if someone asked you for your “short snorter” you had to produce it. If you didn’t, you owed them a drink. Or a “dollar.” Most short snorters are from WWII, but it certainly existed way before then.
And, now that I’ver read JLA’s last question, NO. The one with the shortest snorter didn’t buy drinks.
Google yields up several sets of short snorter rules, all of them different, and all presented as equally authoritative. The reason is that each unit determined its own rules.
Some ripped the bill in half; some didn’t. Some attached bills from each country you were posted to; some didn’t. Sometimes a snorter meant you had crossed the Equator; sometimes not. Sometimes there was a required sign and countersign; sometimes not. About the only constant was that you had to have it on you when requested or you were expected to buy a drink for at least that person, and frequently more.
