Posted by ClearSkies on February 8, 2006, at 22:16:24
In reply to Where did that wagon come from?, posted by ClearSkies on February 8, 2006, at 21:16:21
Ohmigod I can't believe I made such a geeky post.
> Don't know why but I have always wondered why the heck a wagon is used to describe whether one is drinking or not. Here's the origin of the phrase:
>
> <The "wagon" in "on the wagon" (having sworn off drinking all alcohol) and "off the wagon" (having failed in one's resolve and thus having started drinking again) refers to a fixture of America's past, the water wagon. Before roads were routinely paved, municipalities would dispatch horse-drawn water wagons to spray the streets in order to prevent the clouds of dust that traffic would otherwise cause. Anyone who had sworn abstinence from alcohol (and would presumably be drinking largely water from then on) was said to have "climbed aboard the water wagon," later shortened to "on the wagon.">
>
>
> ClearSkies, toodling around in circles on my little red wagon.
poster:ClearSkies
thread:607732
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/subs/20060205/msgs/607784.html