posted on Apr, 26 2011 @ 01:29 PM
Spring of 1964. The last day of my junior year in HS. I'm in a hallway alone and from the other direction comes a guy I had known well in Middle
School. We were no longer friends as he had become part of the ruling clique at our school and I hadn't.
So as we pass in the hallway, I begin to say "hows it going" but realizing that it is the last day of school I changed my mind and tried to say
"hang in there". It came out "hows it hanging". He smiled at me and turned and said, what? oh oh, it's hanging fine and that was that.
I thought no more about it as summer was upon us and I was off to other places. As the school year opened once again in September, I found that
"hows it hanging" had spread to the entire clique and had become the preferred greeting among those in the know. In those days to make such a penis
oriented remark in public was still considered risque where I came from. Anyway a month or so into the school year I was hearing it from people in
schools across town and all around the area.
So my wife refuses to believe me, and if anyone else knows of the origins of this phrase, I will drop all claims as its author.