"Watching the Submarine Races"

I have no clue, but I digged "One of our Submarines" by Thomas Dolby, at the time.

That's one weird expression...

Oh, com'on, you guys. You can watch submarine races in the middle of the desert. It's kind of like "parking", which is another old euphemism for making out.

I used to watch the submarine races in a rest stop off the Belt Parkway in Brooklyn, right on the water. It sure was hard to see those subs at night, so my boyfriend and I found ways to amuse ourselves while we were waiting.

I NEVER knew that they had submarine races in the desert!

I must be too young....

Cool! So it isn't just a little known family thing! I wonder if it isn't fading out though, like "balling the jack".

Or "jacking the ball"...I think that's mafia-speak for what happens when you sleep with the bosses wife.

For those who are into the history of nostalgia:

http://markmcdermott.home.mindspring.com/PCE/Wolfman.txt



Sigh- I straightened out that post. I tried to fix it when I saw that I had hit the wrong buttons, but then my ISP went kerflooey on me, and I had to reset it!

Wow, thanks Phoenix! Very interesting. I'll have to see if my parents remember him starting that.

Now, I always thought Watching the Submarine Races meant that something was dull... something's going on but we can't see it. (Like maybe someone else necking?)

Was in a classroom waiting for class to start. Graduate level fluid dynamics. So I turn to the fellow next to me and say 'This is as exciting as watching the submarine races.'

'Ah-hem!' from behind me...

I turn around and it's the campus Navy ROTC Commander... 'Wathing submarine races is WAY more exciting.'

I conceded the point.

I knew it was slang for necking going back to the '50's but I didn't know Wolfman Jack coined it.

It still amazes me that guy had so much influence on rock and roll, the radio industry, the times, and the culture.

Well, whaddaya know? I grew up in Chicago and thought it was a local line for necking on the lakefront. I can remember my brother, somewhat embarrassed, explaining to me what it meant.
Necking. Now there's a lost art. Do kids even do that anymore or is it just straight to the sex?

You certainly don't need water to watch submarine races. They are UNDERWATER anyway.

Thanks Phoenix. WJ was part of my life growing up but I didn't know much about him.

Not that I am an expert, but I always thought there was a subliminal message to the submarine races, as when the commander shouts "Dive, Dive etc" who could get under the girls skirt the first. Of course you had to have two or three couples in the car. Was there anything to that?

Actually the watching the submarine races are predated by what Bing Crosby sang about called the Old Ox Road in a 1920s or early 1930s song. It appears to be any romantic spot where a boy or girl could go to laugh and talk while kissing and holding hands. A lonely lane where they could walk, sitting on the porch swing or even in a darkened theater on the very last row. Someone mentioned that those romantic moments have been superceded by just hoping into bed now and proceding to the sexual experience. How unfortunate for they miss the fun of romance. Wolfman Jack may have been the originator of the term "Watching the Submarine Races, I don't know about that, but being near the water was not a necessity. A farm kid in the middle of nowhere had just as many opportunities as the city kid with a shinny car and probably had more fun. Moonlit nights on the farm provided many magicial moments for young lovers.

i used to spend some time watching for luminious ducks

Gosh, I hope not. I never could understand how couples necked, not to mention anything more, in the presence of others. I guess when you're young, privacy is limited to a degree but jeez"

Wolfman Jack may have used it, but I'm not so sure he coined it--New York DJs, Alan Freed and Murray the K, at least, were using it in the 50s too. Coincidentally there're several recent threads that some newbie kid doing homework started, about why submarines were invented and what they did (duh), in which answerers have brought in submarine races. I suspect the references went right over the kids head (or maybe considering they're submarines, right under him).

Also, a submarine is shaped like a cigar and full of seamen. And most importantly, if you go down on one, it's only because you know it's going to come up!