Give Me A Pump On Your Bike

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Mary from Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Welcome, Mary.

Hello, Mary.

What’s going on?

I’m calling because I grew up here in Tulsa in Midtown, and four older brothers and I enjoyed riding bikes. We have a big bike culture in our neighborhood, and older kids, younger kids, we would pump each other. So if you had someone riding on your handlebars, or if you turned over your feet and just stood up on the pedals and gave them a ride. We called it pumping.

When I went to college, I went to Colorado College in Colorado Springs and actually majored in English. And I would ask people, say, you know, after the library closed late at night, I’d say, well, you pump me over to my dorm. And I got the strangest responses.

I hardly know you.

And, you know, we could conjugate the verb. I’d say, just give me a little pumping, you know. Just, it’ll only take a minute.

This gets better and better, Mary.

And the school was small enough. Usually, you know, about 2,000 people were there. And I knew everybody else from Oklahoma. There were about a handful of us. Two people from Tulsa knew exactly what I was saying. And they said, oh, sure, you know, hop on. And then anybody from Oklahoma City, I had a friend from WeWoka, someone from Broken Arrow, even that was just right on the outskirts of Tulsa. They had no idea what pumping was.

And so I wondered if it was because the person on the pedals would be pushing so hard.

I think that’s right.

And did the students from Texas know it?

I’m guessing that they would. Maybe I didn’t have enough friends from Texas. In fact, most of the people I remember asking were from Colorado or Connecticut or Tennessee. Like, the kids from Oklahoma City didn’t use it, so I’m surprised you heard it used in Texas, huh?

Yeah, well, I’ve looked through our phone records because we save everything that we get from listeners and all of our email, and we’ve had so many questions about this over the years. Some people from Denton, Texas. We’ve had Sacramento and New Mexico people mentioning it. It does appear in parts of California, Central Valley, I believe.

I think it’s related to the migration back and forth during the Dust Bowl period.

Oh, sure.

From Oklahoma to California.

That’s right.

But other than that, those patches are the only places that I have any reports of people saying pumping. The Dictionary of American Regional English has it. But there, they just have Texas and California is the only places that have reported it. But I wouldn’t be surprised if there are Coloradans who use it, and Arizona and New Mexico and other neighboring states to Texas and Oklahoma.

Sure.

Oh, I love the idea of that being part of the sort of grapes of brass past. So in Texas, it might be a Texas hand handle mostly. But I think you’re absolutely right. I think it’s about those legs pumping up and down like an oil derrick. I really do. It’s just you’re working so hard to push that extra weight around.

Okay.

Well, thanks for clearing that up for me. And I didn’t know it was anywhere outside of Oklahoma. So I’ll look. And what was the dictionary again?

Oh, it’s the Dictionary of American Regional English. Most university libraries will have it.

Okay, great. I’d love to look into it. Thanks again.

Thank you.

Take care.

Thanks for calling.

Bye-bye.

If you’ve got another term for giving someone a ride on your bike so you’re riding double or even triple, let us know, 877-929-9673. Email words@waywordradio.org or ask us on Twitter @wayword.