Word: townfolk
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Cuba and Miami, the game is known as jai alai (pronounced high lie). In the Basque country of France and Spain, where it became a national pastime some five centuries ago when local townfolk used to bat a ball against church walls, it is known as pelota (the ball). By whatever name, it is a lightning-fast combination of handball, tennis and lacrosse, played on a concrete court varying in length from 100 ft. to the size of a football field...
...days grow warmer, so do the nights, and a Boston bistro is no place to spend a quiet, relaxed evening. At this time of year many of the road-houses down towards the beaches set up shop and wait for harried townfolk to sample a cooling sea-breeze with their bottles of beer. Of course, there's the Drive-in Movie, several of them, usually with a bad selection of shows but nevertheless a popular place for college-men and their dates. Cambridge, Lynn, and Dedham stock the closest open air theatres...
...Gleaners. Prewar, the Soviet zone was always a food-surplus area, which the three Western zones were not. But now Russian-zone Germans are as hungry as those in the West. Near Bitterfeld, townfolk were using their Sunday off to glean the few stray wheat stalks left in the stubble of a wheatfield. They grind the grain by hand and make a sort of bread. Some, unable to wait, were eagerly breaking the stalk heads open and eating as they gleaned. It left a grayish paste of kernel shell around their lips...
...tiny Hampton (pop. 800), stiff-backed Thomas Estey Ryder, a retired World War I colonel, tramped up & down the elm-lined main street on a one-man job survey. Prospects for Hampton's returning veterans, he discovered, were dim. But chatting with townfolk, he got an idea...
Beyond the fence were other barriers. When the foreigners spoke brokenly or had trouble with restaurant menus, some Oswegonians snickered. Once, when a Yugoslav couple bade a visitor goodbye at the bus station and the men kissed each other on the cheek, townfolk watched with open amusement. Staid Oswego (pop. 22,062) was unprepared for such a massive transfusion; it could not help gaping, winking, misunderstanding, resenting...