Rev. Clarence H. Wilson

Congregational minister, Flatbush, Brooklyn · earliest documented use, 1927

Almost nothing is publicly recorded about Rev. Clarence H. Wilson beyond the pulpit he occupied: the Flatbush Congregational Church in Brooklyn, where he preached a sermon reported by The Brooklyn Daily Eagle on 24 October 1927. One line from it — “How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?” — is the oldest known instance of a question that would circulate, unattributed, for the next fifty years. Quote Investigator names him the originator only provisionally; he is best understood as the earliest voice we can currently document, not a proven author.

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