When I lived in Charleston & Sommerville, South Carolina from 1994-1997, I met a woman there who had become one of my best friends there. When we were out and about with our kids, she would holler out, "Now, who's ready for a surcee?"
LOL...
I had a heck of a time trying to figure out where she had picked that term up from. She told me that her parents had used that term while she was growing up and has just adapted every since. She really didn't know what the origins were from, but we about died laughing when we saw a store on a town corner in one of the South Carolina towns that said "Surcee's" full of trinkets and tidbits that one might give as a "just because" surprise gift to someone else.
Recently, I had a conversation with someone over the phone at work that used that same term. When she did, I couldn't help but think if this was also my best friend that I haven't seen in over 10 years; but, it wasn't. This woman laughed when I asked her about surcees and asked her how long had she used that term. She said that her parents had used it while growing up and she didn't know exactly where it was coming from.
It is funny how some terms develop in a particular region and it just sticks for whatever reason it might have been. Who knows, being that they were in the South, it might have been a term that some Nanny had come up with generations ago and it just stuck.
If anyone does know the origins of this term, would you please let me know???? I haven't thought about it in over 10 years since my best friend had used the term; now, it is in the recesses of my brain as a constant reminder that I really do need to find out the origination of the Surcee term (since it was brought up again by this other woman the other day).