SPRAGGING can save your life
Written by Cindy O. Herman
You don't question the words you learn as a child; you respond to them. So, when I was a kid flying down a steep hill with a bunch of friends on a sled in my coal cracker hometown of Shamokin, Northumberland County, and a car or a dog or a tree suddenly appeared before us, someone would shout, "Sprag!" Every kid on that sled then thrust their feet out into the snow and spragged for all they were worth. And if we were lucky, we got the sled stopped in time. To sprag is to brake, with as much haste as possible, by slamming your feet against the ground and wearing the tread off your shoes. We did a lot of spragging on our sleds, but it also came in handy on our bikes, especially when the brakes didn't work so well. And I seem to remember that it was the back-up system in event of (the frequent) mechanical problems with the soap box racers that my brother and his friends built. With those little speeders, the braking system usually consisted of a two-by-two stick of lumber nailed near the back tires. When you rammed the stick against a tire, in theory, the friction would slow and eventually stop the spinning of the wheel. In theory.
But steep hills and speeding race cars have a way of toying with theory, so it was good to have Plan B as close as the soles of your sneakers. "Sprag! Sprag!" they'd shout to each other when a brake broke off and went flying uselessly through the air. Sprag worked for me for 13 years, when my family moved to Mifflinburg, Union County, and I made the amazing discovery that it's not a well-known word. People give you the same blank look when they hear it as they do when you talk about jaggers or the hosey. It's hard for me to believe, because it's such a fitting description, but those prickly, round burrs that most people call burdock are not often called jaggers by anyone outside of - where? Coal towns? Shamokin? My old neighborhood? I don't even know how far-reaching these terms are. I only know that the people in my world back then hated jaggers as much as people today hate burdock, especially when it gets matted into your thick, fluffy mittens or the dog's fur. What a mess.
But many of the men in my community could leave behind little frustrations like jaggers by heading to the hosey for a nice, cold beer. Just about every fire station had a bar. I'm not sure if hosey referred to the bar itself or the fire house in general, but it was always a popular place. Spragging, jaggers, hosey. ... Who would have thought these words were not to be found in the King's English? And if these simple words are unknown outside of my hometown, what other invented ones have I unknowingly been using? You have to watch how you talk when you grow up inside Pennsylvania. Not everyone has as rich a vocabulary as we do.
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