Golf Caddie

A golf caddy or golf caddie — depending on how you choose to spell the word — can prove invaluable to a golfer.  When Tiger Woods fell out of the Top 20 golfers last week, the first thing he did was to fire the golf caddy who had been with through thick and thin over the past 12 years.

On July 20, 1999 the Independent Times newspaper in England published an article about golfer Jean Van de Velde who destroyed a three-stroke lead on the 18th hole at the Open Championship held at the Carnoustie Golf Club.  He lost and what came next surprised everyone in the golf world.  Van de Velde was of the opinion that his golf caddy was guilty of a gross dereliction of duty and that gross dereliction of duty is what caused Van de Velde to lose the Open Championship.  The article published — with subheading — was entitled:

Golf-Open `99: Caddie not at fault for debacle
Despite criticism of `Christophe’, Jean Van de Velde can have no one to blame but himself.

On July 14, 1922 the New York Times reported on a very strange discovery the day before at the Rolling Road Golf Club in Baltimore, Maryland.  In a story entitled, “Golf Caddie Finds Murdered Woman: Man’s Cap Is A Clue ” the following was reported:

When Robert Hall, a caddie at the Rolling Road Golf Club, chased a ball into some bushes near the tenth hole early this morning he leaped back in horror when, in reaching in the brush for the ball, he touched a body which proved to be that of a murdered woman.  He quickly alarmed early players at the club, who in turn notified the police, and a dozen detectives were soon busy trying to solve the mystery.

In a New York Times article dated September 12, 1897 and entitled, “Women Here and There” the subject of women and acceptable women’s work was addressed by the journalist.  In his article, readers were told of “enthusiastic church workers going into business in a small way to earn money for some good church work.”  However, it soon discussed the inequality of the businesses, and some of the women were accused of “uncharitableness.”  In part it states:

When a woman acts as a golf caddy or makes a celestial kind of punch for which she receives a generous sum from her interested friends, she is not interfering with other women’s work, and she may raise as much money as she likes, to her own and other people’s satisfaction.  But when she announces that she will do shopping at a lower commission than it can be done elsewhere she is doing some hardworking woman who supports herself and perhaps a family in that way, a direct injury, and putting another obstacle in the way of solving the question which has agitated to many people:  “How shall women receive equal pay for equal work with men?”

The word caddie comes from the Gascon Occitan capdèth.  The Cadets de Gascogne became the captains who served in the French army in the 15th century and were comprised of the youngest sons of the aristocratic families of Gascony.   From there, came the word  le cadet which meant ‘the boy’ or the youngest of the family.

The word cadet — pronounced ca-day –was brought to Scotland from France in 1561 when Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots returned from France where she attended school since 1552.  The first golf course outside of Scotland was built by Louis, King of France for Mary for her personal enjoyment since she loved the game of “golf” so dearly. To make sure she was properly chaperoned (and guarded) while she played, Louis hired cadets from the military school to accompany her.  Soon, it became tradition for military cadets to carry the clubs of royalty as they played the game.

The word cadet appears in print in English in 1610 and the word caddie along with the word cadie appear in print in 1634.  

Interestingly enough, the first named golf caddie was Andrew Dickson who caddied for the Duke of York as a boy in 1681 in the Duke’s golf match on Leith Links.  Andrew Dickson grew up to become an Edinburgh clubmaker of some note and so his name is tied to the game of golf for time immemorial.

Save For A Rainy Day

When you save for a rainy day, you’re putting aside a set amount of money in anticipation that there may come a time in the future when you’ll be needing extra money for something important.  Of course, Mae West had her own take on the phrase when she was quoted as saying, “Save a boy friend for a rainy day, and another in case it doesn’t rain.”

Back on September 25, 2001 the Chicago Tribune ran a news story by Tribune staff reporter, Janet Kidd Stewart entitled, “America’s Psyche Takes Another Blow ; Old Assumptions No Longer Apply.”  The headline beneath the headline read: “There Is Fear In The Marketplace.”  One of the people interviewed was quoted as saying:

“I wouldn’t be surprised if they save a bit more because they realize the world is a bit more of a dangerous place and they need a safety net,” he said. “People used to think, `Why save if I have a high-paying job? Why save for a rainy day if it never rains?’ We know it rains now.”

The Park City Daily News ran a story entitled “More Money Around But Purchasing Power Down” on July 11, 1957 and addressed the subject of inflation and housing prices.

Some felt better off under inflation.  The market value of a home bought 10 years ago is way up, the dollar sales volume of many stores and factories are, too, the pay check of the worked is mucy more impressive today.  They may believe that “a little inflation is a good thing.”  Those who save for a rainy day, those who want to build new homes, factories or schools, fear that what we have now may grow into chronic inflation and become the big bad wolf of our age.

Back on May 21, 1902 the Otago Witness newspaper in New Zealand reported on Jessie MacKay‘s address before the National Council of Women in their news article entitled, “Equal Pat For Equal Work.”  The address included the following:

A young man who puts off marriage to provide for parents or young relations is considered almost a hero. But nothing special is thought of a girl who is the stay of her home, putting aside the hopes and plans of womanhood to fulfil her natal obligations.  It is not expected that she should, in view of her future marriage, save for a rainy day, or to prevent the common pain and degradation of dunning her husband for pin money.  If she remains single, the world takes it as somewhat of an offence that she should save in view of old age.

In an article entitled, “Royalty At A Discount” the New York Times edition of September 15, 1854 had this to say about rainy days:

Within the last half century, Monarchy has been so insecure in Europe that the different Sovereigns have usually prepared for “a rainy day” by making pecuniary investments out of the countries which they govern or misgovern.  Even the Czar, until lately, had $50,000,000 in the State securities of France and England (withdrawn not long ago, when his military plans and movements caused a requirement for money): Louis Phillippe had the precaution to provide for his family by investments in this country as well as in England; Leopold of Belgium has taken the same precaution; and Queen Victoria — said to be haunted by a foreboding that the British Monarchy will come to a close before her own life terminates — is very greatly belied by public rumor, if she, also, has not provided against a possible future of private life, by investments in the United States and elsewhere.

Mifflin Wistar Gibbs wrote in his autobiography, “Shadow and Light” that he was born on April 17, 1823, the son of a Wesleyan Methodist Church minister and a “hard-shell” Baptist mother. He wrote this about his 16th year, in 1839:

On the following Sunday he lay before the pulpit from whence he had preached, cold in death, leaving my mother, who had poor health, with four small children, and little laid by “for a rainy day.”  Unable to remain long at school, I was “put out” to hold and drive a doctor’s horse at three dollars a month, and was engaged in similar employment until I reached sixteen years of age.

Back in the 1750s, more than one legal document stated that the Acadians of Louisiana — those who came from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick — as being simple farmers who practice Catholicism, are totally self-sufficient, and are quick to lay aside provisions for a rainy day.

Moliere (1622-1673) wrote “The Miser” in 1668.  A classic comedy that’s still relevant today, it tells the story of Harpagon, a man who confuses love and money.  Hoarding his money, he buries it in his back garden.  At one point in the play, Harpagon admonishes his children about money by saying, “You ought to put it away for a rainy day.”

In the end, however, the saying “save your money for a rainy day” comes from an Italian comedy, La Spiritata by the Florentine playwright,  A. F. Grazzini  and written in 1561.  The adaptation years later by John Lyly (1554–1628) was known as The Bugbears.  The main plot deals with Formosus and the trickery he uses to secure 3,000 crowns from his miserly father Amadeus, as he is secretly wed to Rosimunda who came to him without a dowry.

It is this play that is the earliest published date for the phrase “save for a rainy day” that Idiomation could locate.