UrsinePunks (Re: County Mounties Spit on the 4th Amendment)

[Tim May <tcmay@got.net>]

At 6:25 AM -0800 2/3/98, Michael H. Warfield wrote:

>"Supertroupers" refers to State Patrol.  The term "Smokie" (coined from
>the movie Smokie and the Bandit) refers to all police.

Nope, not coined from the movie.

Just the reverse.

Highway cops were called "smokies" (or "smokeys") when I was growing up in
Virginia in the 60s, long before the movie.

I haven't checked the derivation, but had always assumed it came from the
Smokey the Bear figure, who wore a tall, broad-brimmed hat (also known as a
campaign hat). The hat worn by many state highway patrols. Ergo, "smokeys."

(I used to see the _real_ Smokey the Bear at the Washington Zoo. I think he
died of old age in the 1970s.)

(A URL with a few details is
http://www.4j.lane.edu/websites/roosevelt/Connections/smokey.html)


--Tim May, posting from the Bear State

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