Minicast Bonus: Down Bucket

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A Way with Words

Language Learning, Society & Culture, Education

4.6 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 11 December 2025

⏱️ 3 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this bonus A Way with Words minicast, Martha and Grant step into the historic streets of Marblehead, Massachusetts, where the simple cry of “Down bucket!” could serve as a kind of local password. After they ponder that and other language of “Headers,” you’ll cry “Up for air!” Hear hundreds of free episodes and learn more on the A Way with Words website: ⁠⁠https://waywordradio.org⁠⁠. Be a part of the show: call or text ⁠⁠1 (877) 929-9673⁠⁠ toll-free in the United States and Canada; elsewhere in the world, call or text ⁠⁠+1 619 800 4443⁠⁠. Send voice notes or messages via ⁠⁠WhatsApp 16198004443.⁠⁠ Email ⁠⁠words@waywordradio.org⁠⁠. Copyright Wayword, Inc., a 501(c)(3) corporation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Being evil queen has never been so fun.
0:03.0	And I am willing to do anything.
0:05.9	We will soon be at war.
0:07.7	You will have to take a side.
0:09.0	War with the Protestants.
0:10.3	What fun.
0:11.5	Or war with the Catholics.
0:12.9	None of us are safe.
0:14.4	Feels good to be bad.
0:16.0	The Serpent Queen on Channel 4.
0:18.5	Stream now.
0:20.0	You're listening to an away with words minicast.
0:23.2	Grant, if I say down bucket, what do you say?
0:26.6	Well, I say up for air.
0:28.8	Yep.
0:30.1	That's what Fred Russell in Marblehead, Massachusetts, tells us, is the traditional response.
0:37.0	It's a sort of hometown password that's used by headers.
0:40.5	That's what those Marblehead residents call themselves. Yep, he's right. Heathers and historians say
0:46.0	down bucket. Down bucket supposedly started as a practical warning. Back when Marblehead didn't have
0:52.9	indoor plumbing or a sewer system, people
0:55.2	emptied chamber pots out the window, or at least this is how the story goes, they'd shout
1:00.4	Down Bucket to warn anyone walking below. If you were from town, you knew to yell up for air and
	...

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