Poof!

In comprehensive school in the 1970s the worst name one boy could call another was the word " poof!" 
As I recall the name was more concerned more with effeminacy rather than with overt homosexuality, but the definition, I guess was fluid and totally negative as poof was synonymous with weakness, an inability in sports ability and cowardice.
When I was a bit older I rather liked to reclaim the name! 
I refused to let the word make me feel in any way negative or second best

In Sheffield I had neighbours on one side that kept themselves to themselves. They were a bit common, and the mother of the household would constantly yell at her brood of useless teenage sons.
One Sunday morning the boys were all sat in their garden ( on an old sofa- how lovely) hidden from my view by a tall brick wall. Presumably they were all suffering from  hangovers as the mother prepared lunch and as I gardened around my neat little garden I heard the mother as she berated them
" you treat this place like a bleeding hotel!" She bellowed "Why can't you be like that old poof next door and keep the place tidy!!!" 
"LESS OF THE OLD!" I shouted back at her as the family dissolved into silence

When I joined the village community council I remarked to fellow councillor- the Red Faced Welsh Farmer- that it was about time that there was a poof on the committee. Of course I said it out of devilment and of course the red faced Welsh Farmer never so much twitched an eyebrow at the remark. 

I bought a pouffe yesterday. I've always wanted one and as the Prof climbed into the car he spied it on the back seat 
" oh two poofs in the car" he quipped


111 comments:

  1. Good one Prof!

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  2. Anonymous10:04 am

    Being called a poof, or poofter, here was similar. It was about being effeminate, rather than about sexual preference. Somehow, though I did not play sports, I mostly avoided the title. I should make it a post, but still we battle. I called a call centre to fix up a new mobile phone service for my partner. 'Will your wife...'. 'It's a he and he is my partner.' 'Sorry, your partner, will she require.........'.

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  3. Three, according to some... Screw em all. I love your response to the neighbors... and your comment to the red faced welsh farmer. I wish I had been more like John Gray years back... even now!

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    1. On this subject I couldn't give a stuff

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  4. Still a young poof at heart!

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  5. In East Yorkshire, we always pronounced it "puff" as in "Puff the Magic Dragon". Until that song came along we never knew that magic dragons could be gay.

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    1. It was so in Wales too YP

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    2. Same pronunciation in lincolnshire too, you bought a puffee or a pouffe. Like Lisa below said, the word omo was also used for someone looking dapper. When we lived in airforce married quarters in the early 70s, I couldn't understand why some houses had a box of Omo in the hall window. Apparently it meant On My Own when their husbands were away and they fancied a bit of male company.

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  6. Where I lived as a child, nicely dressed men were called 'omo. This confused me for a long time as "OMO" was a very cheap washing powder my mum used to buy when she couldn't afford "TIDE". My mum always wanted a leather poof in the living room. How odd that seems now hehehe x

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    1. My sister and I were nicknamed the omo twins as babies as we were always in white knitware

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    2. Aww, and do you still both wear white knitwear?

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  7. what is a "pouffle"; does it mean a footrest? if so, that is a nice one.

    I read this post in john cleese's voice (hello you great poof).

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    1. Its pouffe yes a footrest

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    2. sorry for the spelling; I was not quite awake yet.

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  8. That is a lovely pouffe you bought. ;) I saw one in a local store a couple of years back and I have always regretted not buying it because I have never seen another that was as beautiful. :)

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  9. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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    1. Apologies but I deleted this by accident with my fat fingers Rachel commented that she loved the British sense of humour

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  10. That was funny!
    Mary has a funny expression looking at the pouffe.
    Greetings Maria x

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  11. My Nan had a leather one. In Black Country dialect it was a 'pouffee', but Mum always pronounced with a French accent, so it was a pouffay. Now I'm seeing ones covered in patchwork and they seem to called Tuffets (probably a US term). Either way they are useful items to have around. But I don't have one :(.

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    1. Yes my mother always referred to then in a French accent

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  12. I would have thought that calling someone 'common' was far worse than a 'poof'. But those neighbours sound as if they deserved it.

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    1. Of yes! A sofa in the garden? Thank goodness we had a high wall between us

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    2. I, too, was struck my the word "common" - you snob John Gray (to be read in same accent as in English would say You know nothing Jon Snow)

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    3. THEY HAD A SOFA IN THE GARDEN ( an indoor sofa) HOW COMMON DO YOU WANT, !!!!!!

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    4. I have a sofa on my back deck. I didn't know it was common but I am already that so I guess i can keep the sofa

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  13. Mary looks to be thinking 'I've just got used to living with two 'old' poofs now there's a new poof on the block!' Winnie humped it because in all probability it smells of camel! Looks like it's fresh out of the kasbah.

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    1. She got incredibly excited with it! Wait for thursday's post, I have three separate workmen coming!

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  14. "LESS OF THE OLD!"

    That slayed me! Of course,. so did "two poofs" in the car, though I might think once the prof got in there were three.

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  15. My grandma had a pouffe, which she always pronounced poofie. Presumably to distinguish it from one of those horrid sodomites.

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    1. Yes everyone did use that fake French accent when they said it

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    2. My mum also called her pouffe a poofie. Until fairly recently I assumed that that was what they were called

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  16. I think every house had a poufee once upon a time. There was something called rexeen? like a mock leather stuff. slippery to sit on

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    1. Did it fart when u sat on it?

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    2. We had some rexeen covered dining chairs. They did fart when you sat or moved

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  18. Our "poof" was square and large and covered in suede to match the new sofa ...it was immediately taken over as the bed for the puppy .. who looked very elegant on his suede bed which never looked clean again :)

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    1. The puppy wanted to be higher..and more dominant

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  19. As a proud poofter myself (a poofter IS the same as a poof, isn't it?!) let me just say that I love your new pouffe! And the story about the neighbors is priceless.

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  20. In the 1950's my mum bought a new three piece suite, in uncut moquette? still not sure what that is. Anyway, a cousin of mine was training to be an upholsterer and she asked him if he would make a matching pouffe. He agree, and one dark night there was a knock on the door (remember no-one had a car or a telephone) and there stood my cousin with this huge pouffe in his arms, it weighed a ton. Filled with sawdust and he had brought it on two buses. We still have it and I have to ask for someone to help me move it when I am cleaning. Poor cousin. Love the one you have bought it looks very original. Love Andie xxx

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    1. This simple " pooufee" blog is getting more and more interesting

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  21. I just realized that I recently bought a pouffe and I had no idea what it was. I got it at a thrift store and just thought it was lovely. It has needlepoint flowers on top and is made of green velvet. With fringe.

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  22. Speaking of poofs, I wonder if you've seen the BBC program "Queers" and what you think of it. I watched several episodes online yesterday and was stirred by the tenderness of the monologues.

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    1. Yes it was wonderful. The monologue by the World War One soldier was especially moving

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  23. It's amusingly wonderful, but what is that quilt like object on the chair arm?

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    1. It's a small quilt I was sent by a blog reader, it's quite beautifulx

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  24. The above depicted quadruped appears to be eyeing the pouffe (NB: not the poof) with suspicion...

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  25. Hahaha. The poof and the prof.

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  26. as a child my mother used to rant about John the Mincer down the road it was many years before i realised he didnt make mince pies

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  27. two poofs in the car. funny. thanks for the needed chuckle.

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  28. Good gawd, I think you need an audio of this post, John.

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  29. I've always wanted a poof. I love the word..but then nobody has ever used it on me in a derogatory manner. I like how you can't help but give a little kiss when you say it.

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  30. When my dad retired in the early 70's my folks moved to Laguna Beach, California. They'd been fortunate enough to buy a small beach house earlier before property values skyrocketed. They had a gay couple next door, Stan and Ed, whom my parents swore were brothers, although Ed was much older than Stan and they looked nothing alike. All the homes that were owned by gay men there were gorgeous, with fabulous gardens. The place across the street that was owned by a lesbian couple, not so much. But they did have nice motorcycles.

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  31. I do love a pouffe.....after a long day. favorite chair, feet up...lovely. zzz

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  32. A pouf to me means something warm and comfortable.....sounds about right doesn't it?

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  33. I always called them Ottomans. But I think Poofs has legs while Ottomans do not ?
    As I said above Mary has a bemused look on her face.

    cheers, parsnip

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    1. This subject is getting very complicated

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    2. Ottomans are generally storage chests in the UK, nicely upholstered with a hinged lid, and no legs on either an ottoman or a pouffe. Ottomans mostly found in bedrooms for storage of spare blankets and that sort of thing.

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    4. Thanks for the info !

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    5. 100 comments about a pouffe who would have thought it

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  34. I acquired a proud and plastic upholstered 60's or 70's poof stuffed hard with some a kind of nest of wood shavings when the younger was little. It became his throne as he sat on the porch in good weather eating snacks and surveying the yard. Once it was inevitably destroyed I took the whole top off and recovered it with leather and now it is more of a low stool, very much still used in the living room... Loved reading your story about the rowdy next door neighbors.

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  35. Read your post out to my husband this morning and we started giggling together......we had an old pouffe in the living room, and I kept saying it needed sorting out....I was going to sew new covers for it! My son who was about 15 at the time, and had a gay fellow student and his transgender friend in his music arts and drama course, started lecturing me on being respectful about folks sexual orientation. He went on to say that as nurses, we parents, of all people, should show respect towards the LBTG community.
    Bless him!
    He was sooo gobsmacked when I pointed to the old pouffe, and said that was what I was talking about!!!

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  36. So that's a pouffe. I never knew.

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    1. Stick with me kid and you'll learn something

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  37. Old sofa in the back garden and possibly a broken up car in the front, you were a refreshing addition to the neighbourhood John x

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    1. An oasis of culture , well me and bel ami who lived on the other side.....he reads Proust in FRENCH

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    2. oh gosh! I have the wrecked car out front, too

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  38. An old poof and and new one! :)

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  39. Does that make the Prof a Proof?

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  40. Anonymous4:41 pm

    My mum had a pouffe wen we were kids, being Lancashire folks we called it a stool.

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  41. When I was a student nurse, sharing a house with two others, we had horrible neighbours on one side. We all had a run of night duty and left the house in the evening, returning in the morning looking like death warmed up. The neighbours reported us to the police for being prostitutes! They also contacted the hospital and said three prostitutes were claiming to be nurses from the hospital, the police also checked with the hospital to make sure we were telling the truth. Needless to say our classmates had great fun with the whole thing.

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    1. I'm not surprised ....I've lived in several nurses' homes!

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  42. Footrest...footstool...hassock...ottomans...pouffe.....gotta love the English language!!
    Guess we better get in our sofa/couch/chesterfield from the garden!! lol

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    1. Oh Please leave it and add a Poof !

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  43. chesterfield in my world

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  44. Round our way OMO in the window meant " old man's out" so so woman's lover could pop in for a bit of how's yer father.

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  45. Millicent8:49 pm

    I just winnie would get in the picture. Hope it is easy to clean. Looks very gay as in lovely or delightful. Sorry i could not resist a bad pun.

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    1. Winnie was upstairs in bed. She doesn't get up until noon

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  46. Now put your feet up - your deserve a rest.

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    1. I've just cooked slimline chicken and chips, pea and ham soup from scratch and cleared the garden so it's bake off with a drink to relax

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  47. You make me smile.
    Would you please come be my neighbor?

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  48. Mary looks very wary of that new piece of furniture ! Has she sniffed it yet?

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  49. In our house pouffés were always called 'dumpties'!
    Don't ask me why, I have not a clue! X

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  50. I don't know if Phil Donahue's fame ever reached Wales or not, but, if it's the latter, he was a popular American talk show host in the 1970s and '80s. A good deal of his show had him taking questions from the audiences.

    Boy George was a guest once, and Donahue took a question from an elderly woman with what I believe was a British accent (I'm American myself, remember.)I know longer recall the question, but somewhere along the way she referred to George as a "poof". She did not do this in a seemingly mean way, but just as a statement of fact. Donahue, apparently not familiar with UK slang, asked what a poof was.

    The elderly woman's cheerful reply: "A poof is a pansy, a queer, a fag."

    An embarrassed Donahue quickly sat the woman back down.

    For his part, Boy George simply laughed and said, "I think that we just witnessed heterosexuality's high mark."

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  51. I've not had a pouffe for years, but when we were growing up we always called them 'puffies', maybe it's a Manchester thing.

    Love yours by the way, I'd get one for myself but if I did the cat would just claim it as his own .... he seems to claim every bit of new furniture for the first few months ;-)

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