Could it be that you separate the bread and butter for the ‘filling’ (i.e. obstacle) in the middle?
Dave:
June 15th, 2015 at 5:53 pm
The explanation of a charm against separation given matches what my dad told me when he used it and I asked about it. And he was from Kansas, which dovetails with the DARE citation.
Adam Adamson:
August 2nd, 2015 at 1:06 pm
When I (slightly post WW II) participated in the folksy ritual of saying, “Bread and Butter,” when separating to pass on either side of an obstruction, the liturgy consisted of two parts, the initiator uttering the aforementioned phrase, and the response by the other party being, “Spread it.” I speculate that this was the original form, and that the whole thing was based on a whimsical association between two uses of the word “spread.” Spread out is a common phrase, meaning to increase distance between persons, as when walking together. The vague use of “it” in children’s phrases (“Shut it, Evan.”) is common and may extend back to the early 20th century. So, approaching an obstacle, one might have said, “Spread it,” and another might have replied, whimsically, “bread and butter.” It doesn’t take much to amuse children, and people tend to repeat punch lines of a shared jest in order to bring back the moment, and they even reverse the order of punch line and set up. Thus the B&B/spread it ritual (possibly) was born. Of course, it was not always necessary to say both parts to relish the merriment, so some might have dropped the “spread it” part, and if you weren’t in on the initial joke it wasn’t necessary to understand why in order to do what your friends were doing and be included socially. Hence the obscurity surrounding what “bread and butter” has to do with going around both sides of an object. All of this is speculation, of course, except my experience of the ritual having two parts.
Joyce Melton:
September 2nd, 2015 at 8:21 am
My memory of this phrase as a child in the Fifties was that the whole incantation went “Bread, and butter on my side.” And as I understood the meaning, I get all the luck or good fortune from what just happened.
No clue if that was an original form or a development, perhaps local or idiosyncratic.
Luci North:
April 27th, 2017 at 1:27 am
When I was a child my great grandmother, born in 1886 told me when you walked between something it would cause a quarrel unless you said bread and butter, salt and pepper. To this day I still sill out of habit say it.
I heard the “bread and butter” comment twice today. On a rerun episode of Monk, and then near the end of the 1937 film Topper.
Brier:
April 16th, 2019 at 12:50 am
You nailed it, Adam! I think you’re exactly right as to the child-like ritual, and how the order of the two phrases simply got switched around, and eventually the “spread it” being largely forgotten for reasons of childhood simplicity. I had never even heard the “spread it” part before! And also, you’re a really good writer, very enjoyable story to read. Thanks!!
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Moley:
June 1st, 2015 at 8:55 am
Could it be that you separate the bread and butter for the ‘filling’ (i.e. obstacle) in the middle?
Dave:
June 15th, 2015 at 5:53 pm
The explanation of a charm against separation given matches what my dad told me when he used it and I asked about it. And he was from Kansas, which dovetails with the DARE citation.
Adam Adamson:
August 2nd, 2015 at 1:06 pm
When I (slightly post WW II) participated in the folksy ritual of saying, “Bread and Butter,” when separating to pass on either side of an obstruction, the liturgy consisted of two parts, the initiator uttering the aforementioned phrase, and the response by the other party being, “Spread it.” I speculate that this was the original form, and that the whole thing was based on a whimsical association between two uses of the word “spread.” Spread out is a common phrase, meaning to increase distance between persons, as when walking together. The vague use of “it” in children’s phrases (“Shut it, Evan.”) is common and may extend back to the early 20th century. So, approaching an obstacle, one might have said, “Spread it,” and another might have replied, whimsically, “bread and butter.” It doesn’t take much to amuse children, and people tend to repeat punch lines of a shared jest in order to bring back the moment, and they even reverse the order of punch line and set up. Thus the B&B/spread it ritual (possibly) was born. Of course, it was not always necessary to say both parts to relish the merriment, so some might have dropped the “spread it” part, and if you weren’t in on the initial joke it wasn’t necessary to understand why in order to do what your friends were doing and be included socially. Hence the obscurity surrounding what “bread and butter” has to do with going around both sides of an object. All of this is speculation, of course, except my experience of the ritual having two parts.
Joyce Melton:
September 2nd, 2015 at 8:21 am
My memory of this phrase as a child in the Fifties was that the whole incantation went “Bread, and butter on my side.” And as I understood the meaning, I get all the luck or good fortune from what just happened.
No clue if that was an original form or a development, perhaps local or idiosyncratic.
Luci North:
April 27th, 2017 at 1:27 am
When I was a child my great grandmother, born in 1886 told me when you walked between something it would cause a quarrel unless you said bread and butter, salt and pepper. To this day I still sill out of habit say it.
Susan Reinaman:
February 18th, 2018 at 1:06 pm
I heard the “bread and butter” comment twice today. On a rerun episode of Monk, and then near the end of the 1937 film Topper.
Brier:
April 16th, 2019 at 12:50 am
You nailed it, Adam! I think you’re exactly right as to the child-like ritual, and how the order of the two phrases simply got switched around, and eventually the “spread it” being largely forgotten for reasons of childhood simplicity. I had never even heard the “spread it” part before! And also, you’re a really good writer, very enjoyable story to read. Thanks!!