"couple-three"

[Ray Easton]

Ian Livingston wrote:
> Well, just to reinforce your doubts about the source:  "Oedipa,
> checking the bar, grew nervous.  There was this je ne sais quoi about
> the Scope crowd: they all wore glasses and stared at you, silent.
> Except for a couple-three nearer the door, who were engaged in a
> nose-picking contest, seeing how far they could flick it across the
> room."  If the saying originated "southeast Michigan in the 1960's,"
> it must have traveled far fast.  I seem to recollect the phrase in use
> from my youth in California during the '60s.  I think it may go back
> much further than the urbandictionary dug.
>
>   


My grandmother used the phrase in rural central Ky in the 50's.

Ray