The First Bucket List

By Robin Weaver

I’ve been chugging away at my bucket list and for the most part, I feel fortunate to have checked off many of the things within my power to accomplish. Don’t get me wrong, I still have a long list. For example, I’m still waiting on my hug from Jon Bon Jovi, hankering for dinner cooked by Bobby Flay, and my name has yet to appear on the NYT Best Seller list, but I have been to Hawaii, London, and Yankee Stadium. I’ve also been skiing in Alaska and dancing in Tokyo.

Fear not, I won’t bore you with my list of things done and yet to do (otherwise, “avoid listening to folks droning on and on about bucket lists” might make your top twenty).  I did wonder where the term originated, though.

Believe it or not, the term is relatively recent.  Merriam Webster defines the term as a list of things one has not done yet but wants to do before dying. Obviously, Bucket List was popularized by the 2007 movie with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman playing terminal cancer patients living it up while they still can. That, however, wasn’t the first time “bucket list” was uttered. Believe it or not, the actual terminology is related to computer programming. Naturally a geek like me would find that fascinating. Compilers reference a bucket list of objects.

The term is derived from the phrase kicking the bucket—aka, dying, an expression used since 1785, and perhaps even earlier. Although the derivation of bucket list is quite old, Merriam Webster indicates the first known use (with today’s meaning) was in 2006. But I’m not sure that’s the whole story. Based on my research, the term was used—perhaps for the first time?—in in the book Unfair & Unbalanced: The Lunatic Magniloquence of Henry E. Panky, by Patrick M. Carlisle. The novel includes the passage:

“So, anyway, a Great Man, in his querulous twilight years, who doesn’t want to go gently into that blacky black night. He wants to cut loose, dance on the razor’s edge, pry the lid off his bucket list!”

I’m sure you wondering how you’ve made it his far without knowing that! Well, here’s another totally useless fact. Did you know bucket list is also urban slang for a ugly females? People can be so cruel.

Here’s to your bucket list. Hope you check off many things in 2016.