A story of lumberjacks and lice

Addressing Boucar Diouf, the author offers a completely different definition of “farting at the hoop” than that of the columnist in his text of January 21, “We fart less and less at the hoop”¹.

Hello Boucar, maybe you know the origin of this expression, but I like the version that my grandfathers, my uncles and my father used to tell, those who were lumberjacks from the 1930s to the 1950s.

For them, this expression has its origin in the reality of their lives: almost non-existent hygiene facilities in remote places, mattresses made up of resinous branches and a great promiscuity of the places… here is a perfect scenario for the presence of body lice.

These lice, of course, were happy to interfere in the fibers of the famous woolen clothes which were rarely removed, hence an ideal scenario for their propagation.

One of the ways to eliminate lice in the combines was to wash them and hang them outside. Not to dry them out, but to get rid of the lice. Hey! yes, on very cold days, it was possible to hear the lice “fart”. And hence the expression “peter au frette” “.

For the lice on the body… they smeared themselves with a “grey ointment” (not a fault, that’s really what they called it) camphor based, to decrease itching and spreading.