Plobs at Minchenden

 

Adolescent boys have awful habits and we were no better all of those years ago at Minchenden Grammar School in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The presence of girls didn't make us that much better until perhaps we got into the Sixth Form.

One thing we did was to chew the ends of Bic pens and the little plug in the end. Plug is the official Bic word for it.

Now I was having a coffee with someone and I asked them what they called that plug. They didn't have a particular name.

But at Minchenden I said that we called it a plob. I was not believed so I sent a text message to David Dell and asked him. He confirmed that we did in fact call it a plob.

Plob of itself is an interesting word, as it is short and memorable, but does not appear in the Oxford Dictionary. There is a game about The Plobs, but that is all.