On Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:52:15 -0700, "Bob Terwilliger"
> wrote:

>Gloria wrote:
>
>>>> Really, the "gravy" terminology is not something I ever
>>>> heard of until the Internet was created and stories like
>>>> that just started circulating out of proportion to
>>>> actual linguistic usage.
>>>
>>> Interesting I heard the "gravy" term long before I even had a
>>> computer.
>>
>> I have a cookbook from a church auxiliary in Boston's Little Italy
>> that is at least 30 years old and some of the ladies referred to
>> their red sauce as "gravy" back then.
>
>I'm not sure how old the term "gravy" is as applied to red sauce for pasta.
>I first ran across that usage in a story written in 1967.
>
>Bob

I've got a friend who grew up in the Taylor street area of Chicago.
He's first generation born in the states. He's called it gravy his
whole life. So the term is at least 65 years old.

Lou