Recently my good friend A.J. Campbell, who just happens to be a niece of Warren County’s most famous native, Dottie West, sent me a text because her son, Colin, was asking how this phrase got started. Luckily I did the work on this one over ten years ago and it appears in my first large volume of "Most Comprehensive Origins of Clichés, Proverbs and Figurative Expressions" which can be found in libraries across the country.

This saying started in America — but not in the 21st century, or even the latter-20th century. It was coined back in the early 20th century. A hand-basket is just a basket with a handle. Whatever is being carried in one goes wherever it is being taken with no resistance.

James Rader, an editor with Merriam Webster writes in "The Dictionary of American Regional English" that the saying "to go to heaven in a handbasket" was recorded much earlier than "to go to hell in a handbasket," which he indicates appears to have come about in the 1950s. Because of a reference to "head in a handbasket" from Samuel’s diary in 1714, Mr. Rader presumed the saying could have been around "much longer than our records indicate."

An earlier example, however, of this precise saying is from The American Magazine, Volume 105, 1928:

"'They can all go to Hell in a hand basket!’ Lem burst out.”

If you have a phrase you would like to see featured here, please text Stan at 931-212-3303 or email him at stan@stclair.net