chubby a waist-length jacket, often made of fake fur.
snood a cap made of fine netting that women use to hold their hair in place.
rutabaga Also called a Swede turnip, it is a vegetable whose edible root is purplish with yellow flesh.
B-52 an American military bomber plane, used extensively during the Vietnam War (1954–75).
Prince Charming here, meaning the perfect man. In Walt Disney's film-length cartoon Snow White and the 7 Dwarves (1937), Prince Charming kisses the sleeping Snow White and releases her from an evil witch's enchantment.
MGM Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, a major United States movie studio whose most famous years were around the middle of the twentieth century.
dragnet a systematic law-enforcement operation to catch criminals; a "sting" operation.
pot of mustards "Mustards" refers to mustard greens, leafy plants whose leaves are rinsed and cooked much like spinach.
saddle shoes Popular in the 1950s and '60s, saddle shoes are flat-looking white shoes with a leather band — usually black — across the instep.
Sam Sheppard In 1954, a Cleveland jury found Dr. Sheppard guilty of second-degree murder of his wife, Marilyn. In 1966, a new jury found him not guilty. In the late 1990s, Sheppard's son, Sam, authored Mockery of Justice and filed for DNA testing to further clear his father's reputation.
men of the Ninety-second an all-black United States Army regiment that fought during World War I.
Belleau Wood a small forest in northern France, site of a World War I battle (1918) in which United States military forces stopped a German advance on Paris.
Orval Faubus a former governor of Arkansas. On September 4, 1957, Faubus ordered the Arkansas National Guard to surround Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, to keep nine black prospective students from entering. Despite the United States Supreme Court's 1954 ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, which outlawed segregation of public schools, Faubus was determined to keep the schools segregated. The nine students later became known as "The Little Rock Nine."
we've been tight Here, "tight" means "good friends."
Kennedy or Elijah refers to President John F. Kennedy (1917–63), who was renowned for his promotion of civil rights legislation, and Elijah Muhammad (1897–1975), who founded the Nation of Islam, a religious organization that promotes self-reliance.
gnome a mythological dwarflike creature who lives underground.
