“Keep Up with the Joneses”

I have always liked the idiom “keep up with the Joneses.” Being related to and knowing a lot of Joneses means I have a more personal connection to this phrase. After all, I have regularly attended a Jones reunion since my early childhood.

 I remember being confused as a young child as to what it meant to “keep up with the Joneses.” I had grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins that were all Joneses. In my young mind, Joneses were mostly poor dairy farmers who didn’t have much in the way of worldly possessions.

 According to the Scholastic Dictionary of Idioms, “keep up with the Joneses” means “to try to keep up with what your neighbors have socially and financially; to work hard to have possessions as good as your neighbors.”

 This phrase was made popular by an American newspaper comic strip written by Pop Momand titled “Keeping Up with the Joneses.” This comic strip depicts one family’s struggle to “Keep up” with the lifestyle of their neighbors. It ran from 1913 to 1938. Because Jones is such a common last name, it was used to refer to people in general.