Xster wrote:Funny, but what I don't get is the meaning of the word "wagon" in that saying. What "wagon"? duh
After digging a bit found some clarity to the issue.
The "wagon" in "on the wagon" (having sworn off drinking all alcohol) and "off the wagon" (having failed in one's resolve and thus having started drinking again) refers to a fixture of America's past, the water wagon. Before roads were routinely paved, municipalities would dispatch horse-drawn water wagons to spray the streets in order to prevent the clouds of dust that traffic would otherwise cause. Anyone who had sworn abstinence from alcohol (and would presumably be drinking largely water from then on) was said to have "climbed aboard the water wagon," later shortened to "on the wagon."
"Well......maybe I did get alittle carried away! "