Mudcat Café message #4176769

The Mudcat Café ^TM
Thread #4405 Message #4176769
Posted By: Lighter
13-Jul-23 - 04:15 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Chicago/I Used to Work in Chicago (bawdy)
Subject: RE: Origins: Chicago/I Used to Work in Chicago (bawdy)

I had the same idea.

"The Bayonet" (Columbus, Ga.), Oct. 18, 1945, as a throwaway line:

"I useta woik in Chicago, in a department store."

If "ditty" means song, this is from a March 8, 1942, in Virgil Thomson, Music Chronicles (1945):

"The Juilliard School used to give modern operas. They did but they don't any more, as the ditty hath it."