History of the High Five
Posted: Monday, December 15, 2008
by Dan Bimrose
Liberal Fix
The high five is way past trend status. It is a part of our culture. While our youth, and certain Presidential candidates "pound" it, this may still be just a trend. The high five is forever.
I think it should stay forever. There are a few reasons why I like the high five and unfortunately for you I am about to disclose them.
The first reason; it's fun. Pretty simple, I like doing it.
The third reason; you know when you give someone a high five something good has just happened. Perhaps someone has just won the Super Bowl or the World Series. Someone could have just landed some girl's phone number that he does not have a chance in heck of going on a date with. Remember when you found out that OJ Simpson was going to actually serve time and be held accountable for something he had done? How many high fives did you give that day?
My wife and I shared a high five yesterday. If you are married with children it is the best kind of high five a couple can share. It is the high-five that occurs when you get in the car after you drop your two kids, both under the age of two off, at their Aunt's house for the day so that their parents can have an entire day to themselves.
What did we do on this glorious day. We went to lunch, to the doctor, ran some additional errands and took a glorious, precious nap. Yeah!
You might ask yourself if this was worthy of a high five. You bet your rear end it was. We might not have been going to Disney World afterwords but taking a nap was just as good and a heckuva lot cheaper.
Certain things occur that are not worthy of a high five. Getting a bill in the mail does not qualify. Toothaches are not worthy. No one has ever high-fived anyone after hitting a deer with their car. The point is, the high five is the international symbol for "it's going to be a good day."
Now for a little history of the high five. There are many different ideas for the origin of this form of expression.
It seems that the first time it was used and exposed to the world at large was in 1977 at a Dodgers game. Dusty Baker hit a home run and as he crossed the plate on-deck hitter Glenn Burke raised his hand and Dusty slapped it.
Also in 2002, students at the University of Virginia (their claim, not mine) originated the first National High Five Day. You do not believe me, check it out.
There is one more reason I like the high five. It requires two people. You cannot perform a high five by yourself. Well you can try but you might look silly doing it.
Since it does require two people it means that you have someone with you that you can share whatever joy it is that you have just experienced. That alone, sometimes, is worth it.
Dan Bimrose is the creator of coffeeandprozac.com which features daily Opinions, Editorials, and Stories and the website tuesdaysreleases.com which is devoted to recently released DVD movies.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)1977? Dan, you are way off. I can remember the high-5 as deriving from American Black culture in the 1960s, along with other expressions such as "bad" (equivalent to "cool"). I graduated from high school in 1977, and I KNOW my friends were high-fiving each other well before that.
The original expression was "give me five," which became, "high five," and then "now give me a low five." I don't hear the "give me low five" used any more.Please log in to respond to this comment.
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