From Kindergarten to Grade Six, if I wanted to sneak away from school and miss a morning or evening, I was mooching. All the students in the United School called it that. Then, during my sixth year our family moved to another part of Heart’s Ease and I had to go to the Salvation Army school because it was nearer. For the first time I learned that sneaking away was called playing hookey. All the students there called it that.
Source: Rosalind Drodge – collected for a Folklore Course at MUN in 1971.