Fred Levit wrote:
>
> If my memory of service in the field artillery in The War Before You Were
> Born is correct, near side and off side are, in the U.S., reversed from the
> British usage because the driver is on the opposite side. Hence near side
> is the driver's side, left in the U.S., and the off side is the other side.
> There was a line in the song `The Caissons Go Rolling Along' about
> something or other `on the off side of a Jeep.' The line was obviously
> added during the above-mentioned war.
>
> There is a tool that I am sure we all have that consists of a straight
> handle with a pivoting end that fits a socket wrench. It always has a hole
> near the top of the handle. The tool is called, in the Sears tool catalog,
> a `flex `T' handle.' It doesn't come with the bar to fit the hole, as does
> the hollow socket wrench in the Sunbeam tool kit but that is obviously what
> the hole is for.
>
> I suspect that the word `Tommy' was used by the British as a handier thing
> to say than `T.'
> Fred Levit
> fle426(at)nwu.edu
Fred, do you think? perhaps as soon as i read the line about handle and
flex"t". That the "Tommy" refered to the shape or fitting like a
"TommyGun"??
Just a thought.
chuck series ll, no tommy and all new tools no originals.
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