"Up in G"

This is a possibility, read the entire site - it may mean
"paradise":

GARDEN -- (church Slavonic) -- paradise, land of the blessed, a
marvelous place in the imaginations of various peoples.
Notions of a better life have been reflected in the descriptions of G.
No one knows for certain where G. is located. The existence of G. is
attributed to the Beginning of Time, to the End of Time or in general is
removed beyond the bounds of this world; then G. is populated with gods,
spirits of the dead and other supernatural beings. 
People try to enter G., a place where there is no time (cf. below),
where everyone is happy and where one and the same wind always blows (in
Homer it was Zephyrus).
As a rule, time as such is absent in G.: there is either no "yesterday"
or "tomorrow" at all, no past or future, there is a never-setting sun,
or else the change in the time of day and seasons is extremely
prolonged. Therefore, when ordinary people wind up in G., this
frequently ends for them lamentably (just like a trip into space for
astronauts in science fiction stories): when they return home, if they
return at all, then it turns out that one day in G. is equal to a month,
year or century in the ordinary world. 
Still one more variant exists: people who have reached G. forget about
everything that happened to them before. For this reason, some
researchers believe that Garamantes is one of the G. of ancient
civilization.

http://www.chronos.msu.ru/EREPORTS/gerasimchuk_dictionary.htm 


Down in front of Casey's old brown wooden stoop
On a summer's evening we formed a merry group
Boys and girls together we would sing and waltz
While Tony played the organ on the sidewalks of New York

East Side, West Side, all around the town
The tots sang "ring-around-rosie," "London Bridge is falling down"
Boys and girls together, me and Mamie O'Rourke
Tripped the light fantastic on the sidewalks of New York

That's where Johnny Casey, little Jimmy Crowe
Jakey Krause, the baker, who always had the dough
Pretty Nellie Shannon with a dude as light as cork
She first picked up the waltz step on the sidewalks of New York

Things have changed since those times, some are up in "G"
Others they are wand'rers but they all feel just like me
They'd part with all they've got, could they once more walk
With their best girl and have a twirl on the sidewalks of New York

http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/lyrics/sidewalk.htm 

http://www.eosdev.com/Illustrations_Quotes/NewYork/sidewalksofny.htm 

Another use of the term?:

"Hurrah!" shrilly screamed Waldo, as he dashed out into the storm,
fairly revelling in the sudden change. "Who says this isn't 'way up in
G?' Who says--out of the way, Bruno! Shut that trap-door in your face,
so another fellow may get at least a share of the good things coming
straight down from--ow--wow!"

CHAPTER I.
Nature in Travail
 	 
	The Lost City by Joseph E. Badger Jr. 
http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/adventure/TheLostCity/Chap1.html



Honor

>>> [log in to unmask] 2/18/2005 4:28:54 PM >>>
The song line you refer to is in "The Sidewalks of New York."
The Sidewalks of New York : Music: Charles B. Lawlor, Lyrics: James W.
Blake 
, Publisher: Howley, Haviland & Company Copyright: 1894  (I have seen a

sheet music cover with this date; it could even have been published
earlier 
in another version as frequently happened.)

This 1894 song is one of New York's most popular. It used as the
campaign 
song for Alfred E. Smith, Democratic nominee for President in the 1924

campaign. It was first introduced at the Old London Theater in the
Bowery of 
New York City by Lottie Gilson, a popular singer of the times. Her use
of 
the song established the publisher as a major player in the music
business. 
(The words to the tune were written by James Blake, a salesman in a
hatter's 
shop at the time, who liked to write verses, so perhaps it is not
surprising 
he used slang terms.)

The lyrics, written in the 1890's are nostalgic for an earlier time in
New 
York, perhaps the 1870's.  There were no subways in 1894 when the song
came 
out (first one was 1904) so it could not have anything to do with
subways, 
and certainly not the current "G" train which serves Queens and
Brooklyn. 
The existing trains were the Els, but they were generally referred to
by 
their streets, such as the Second Avenue train line because they only
ran 
straight up one avenue of Manhattan.

"Things have changed since those times, some are up in "G"
Others they are wand'rers but they all feel just like me "...  is one

version of the context of the up in "G" but  another says "Some are up
in 
"G", some are on the hog," which I believe would be a good thing such
as "in 
clover" would be. Therefore they ones who are up in G could have moved
on to 
a better place, such as Gramercy Park as someone else suggested, or 
conversely they could be worse off, such as in prison? Perhaps the term

referred to a jail of the time?

An interesting question. Thanks for the thinking exercise.













>From: [log in to unmask] 
>Reply-To: "A LISTSERV list for discussions pertaining to New York
State     
>          history." <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask] 
>Subject: "Sidewalks of New York"
>Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 18:10:54 EST
>
>I've heard the "G" mentioned in 2 ways.  The first was a reference to 

>Uptown
>as in "Gramercy Park" and the  other was "Grande's" Was  a
sophisticated 
>nite
>club uptown.