Remember this saying? Actually, every generation has some affinity for this innuendo or put-down.
In its least suggestive form, telling someone to “eat a peach” was akin to suggesting they “eat my shorts,” a favorite of high school boys in the 1970s. While Bart Simpson may have been the great provocateur of the phrase, he did not invent it.
Never mind that the Allman Brothers had released an album called Eat a Peach, these Georgia boys likely meant something a bit more promiscuous than enjoying the actual fruit. They were referring to the two-legged kind.
When rocker Neil Young suddenly quit his 1976 tour with former Buffalo Springfield bandmate Stephen Stills, he sent a telegram: “Dear Stephen, funny how some things that start spontaneously end that way. Eat a peach. Neil.” I’m sure it was meant with great affection.
I haven’t heard “eat a peach” in years, but it pops up every so often in a new song or is co-opted with a new sexual twist.
In previous generations, the word “peach” had a very fine, respectable meaning. Peaches & cream had a wholesome connotation, as in a youthful, attractive appearance. The reference was almost virginal, which can ignite a more lurid desire, the fresh and unspoiled.
In my teenage days, telling someone to eat a peach was like “stick it in your ear” or on the Happy Days series, “sit on it.” All remarks from a rapier-like wit. Later on, the phrase turned into “screw you” or “bite me.” How do those intellectuals keep think of these witticisms? These phrases were really intended as put-downs, insulting, but not X-rated.
In today’s meaning, eat a peach has more to do with the female anatomy, and not necessarily the part you might think. Kids these days. Back in the disco era, eat a peach, was just moderately offensive. Today, it seems quite graphic.
I miss the relative offensiveness of the euphemism, not the salacious intent.
Oh, to be mildly offensive again.
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