AtD - excerpt "punkinroller'd"

[jbor at bigpond.com]

A typo, OK. So "pumpkin roller" is an idiom term. Google brings up:

"farmer"
http://langverse.blogspot.com/2005/11/pumpkin-pie-in-sky.html

"Texas ranchers knew otherwise and often galloped north to graze their  
herds on the Panhandle's grasses—big and little bluestem, skunk brush,  
prairie ragwort, Indian grass, buffalo grass. The Texans referred to  
the sod-busting Panhandlers as "pumpkin rollers." It was not a term of  
endearment."
http://www.caranddriver.com/features/9295/pumpkin-rollers-in-no-mans- 
land.html

"a green farmboy with no knowledge of ranching"
The Pumpkin Rollers RC 43160
by Elmer Kelton
http://www.loc.gov/nls/tbt/1997/1997-6-tbtaf.html
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0812543998/102-0232504-5720170? 
v=glance&n=283155

Someone who wrote a thesis about pumpkins notes:
"Pumpkins also had historic connotations when it came to social class.  
Poor farmers ate the cheap and easy-too-grow pumpkin, Ott said. The  
terms "pumpkin-roller" and "pumpkin-head" were insults that meant the  
recipient was poor, dim-witted or brutish, she said."

Here though it's used to refer to a gun:
"I still love the old blaster alomg with my pumpkin roller a 45-70  
Remington rolling-block."
http://forums.dailyrotten.com/389/00021326/

So, Jimmy's insulting Willis as a greenhorn, primarily w/r/t how he  
looks and comes across but also, possibly, to the gun he carries.

best

On 08/08/2006:

> I've gotten a faxed copy of the catalog pages. They're not perfectly  
> clear,
> but barring a major transmission/printing problem, they're clear  
> enough to
> show that the line is:
>
> "Beg your pardon, what in hell business of any got-damn punkinroller'd  
> this
> be, again?"
>
> punkin roller
> disparaging term referring to a hokey rodeo
> http://www.westyellowstonenews.com/articles/2003/06/26/news/ 
> local_headlines/
> anews01.prt
>
> punkin' rollers
> "Little shows," said Tom. "Local shows where the local boys act like  
> they're
> big time."
> http://libweb.sfasu.edu/real/vol28-2/punkinroller.htm
>
> So authentic Western gunslinger Jimmy Drop characterizes young Willis  
> as
> something of a faker trying to act big time...and not being at all
> convincing.
>
> d.
>