I’ve been reading about WW-II history since I could read. Just about every book about aircraft carrier battles in the Pacific, at some point, has to explain this business of “Hey Rube!” The carriers had an FDO, that’s Fighter Direction Officer. His job was to coordinate and direct the ships fighter planes assigned as Combat Air Patrol (CAP), whose job is to protect the carrier from enemy air attack. So when it became clear that the ship was about to be attacked from the air, and the FDO wanted to quickly get all the fighter planes back close to the carrier to repel the attack, he would call out over the radio, for all to hear “Hey Rube!”. This, all the history books would briefly explain, was “the old circus cry for help.” What? I never got that. What the heck is a “circus cry for help” anyway? Who, exactly, yells out “hey rube!” at the circus? And to what purpose? Did the clowns yell that when the human cannon balls came over to beat them up? What? I’ve tried Googling that, but I’ve never run across a clear explanation.
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So, now I’m reading yet another such book, and this time the author described the tactical radio call “Hey Rube!” as “the old carnival barker’s call for help.” Ok, that’s slightly different, and upon Googling that, I think I have found the answer. “Carnival barkers” are those con-artists found at the state fair, who take your money through various tricks, right? Card tricks, shell games, etc. Well, it seems that sometimes some people get upset upon being swindled by the con-artists. (Who knew?) So when the barker is about to get beat up by a crowd of angry fair-goers, he would yell out “Hey Rube!” This was the agreed-upon signal to all the other barkers, circus clowns, tight rope walkers, and such, that one of their own needs help. Evidently this “hey rube!” phrase is very old, going back hundreds of years even.
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Isn’t that interesting? The things we learn from Google!
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com
fficeffice" /><o></o>So, now I’m reading yet another such book, and this time the author described the tactical radio call “Hey Rube!” as “the old carnival barker’s call for help.” Ok, that’s slightly different, and upon Googling that, I think I have found the answer. “Carnival barkers” are those con-artists found at the state fair, who take your money through various tricks, right? Card tricks, shell games, etc. Well, it seems that sometimes some people get upset upon being swindled by the con-artists. (Who knew?
) So when the barker is about to get beat up by a crowd of angry fair-goers, he would yell out “Hey Rube!” This was the agreed-upon signal to all the other barkers, circus clowns, tight rope walkers, and such, that one of their own needs help. Evidently this “hey rube!” phrase is very old, going back hundreds of years even.<o
></o>Isn’t that interesting? The things we learn from Google!
