POST YOUR FAVORITE OLD SAYINGS
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I can remember back
during the depression, my grandmother would tell a grocer "now that's higher than a cat's back"
If it was getting very cloudy she would say "it's clabbering up to rain". Nancy Bradford
Young - Stone Mountain, GA |
He's as poor as Job's turkey |
She talk's ever which way." |
"This thang is plum whompered-jawed." |
"I'm between the devil and the deep blue
sea." |
"Give him time and he'll come to his
milk." |
"I'll slap you to the back side o' no
where." |
"As
common as pig tracks." Iron Duke |
My husband uses the
old time sayings; our sons repeat them; the tradition is kept up; what a shame that so
many families don't talk or poo-pooh the old timers
Poo-pooh comes from my m-i-law; her mother said "oh, tut".
Huguenaute@aol.com |
"He's
lower than a snake's belly in a wagon rut." Karen Parker in Austin, Texas |
"Jumpy as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking
chairs." |
| Try as I may back in
the second or third grade, I could NOT learn which months had 30 days, etc. Then, I read
this little ditty in the Weekly Reader that we each got in class in Arkansas: Thirty
days hath Septober,
April, June, and No Wonder!
All the Others have Peanut Butter -
Except my Grandmother, and
She Has a Little Red Tricycle.
From the day I saw that until this
day, I have had no more trouble with months! Isn't it scary how my mind works?? Shirley Norman Gunn |
"Grinning like a jackass in a cactus patch."
Joe in Austin |
"He was
slobbering over that gal like a new born calf." |
My grandmother died
when I was 10 years old, but I still find myself recalling things she would say. I guess
we never know how much we influence someone's life.
One of her favorites: "You
won't learn that any farther up the creek".
Donna Trewitt |
"Madder
than an old wet hen." |
"Ah, the Dickens and
Tom Walker." |
"He walks like his
got ants in his britches." |
My husbands family has different names for common items than my family has.
For example, the glove box or compartment is called the "knowledge box" My family called the glove box a "car pocket" most of the time.
Paula Barker |
"There
never was a cowboy that couldnt be throwed." Iron
Duke |
My ancestors were all
builders, many were carpenters. My Uncle Bill, whenever he cut a joint in wood working
that didn't quite fit as it should, would say "You'd never see that from a galloping horse".
Ray Faircloth |
"Ornery
as a fried toad." |
| Has anyone ever heard,
"saucered and blowed"? This refers to pouring coffee from the cup
into the saucer and blowing on it to get it cool enough to drink, but is now used in the
context of having something ready... My grandmother, mother, and now I use this phrase. Joann K. Gordan |
"Grinning
like a jackass in a cactus patch." Joe in Austin |
"Slower
than molasses in January." |
| When I
turned 21, I traveled outside of SC for the first time to someplace other than NC or GA.
(They didn't count as TRAVELING because the state line was only about ten miles from my
home!) Anyway, I went off to see Utah. And while there I had the most embarrassing
experience for a 21 year old. I got on an elevator to go up. And there was a very nice
older gentleman who also got on at the same time. Being the gentleman he was, he turned to
me and asked which floor I was going to. So, being from SC, and DEFINITELY surprised by
such a question when I was just going to push the button myself, I blurted out without
thinking "Oh, could you mash 4 for me, please." Well, after he looked at me
really weird (kinda' like I was speaking a foreign language or was from MARS or something)
for about two minutes (and NOT pushing anything), I realized what had popped out by
accident and had to say "I meant could you push 4, please". Man, talk about feeling like I was a
country bumpkin that had just fallen off the turnip truck!! When I got back to my
roommates, I started talking to them about my 'adventure' and they told me that I did,
INDEED, speak a different language. But that they had been able to figure out what I meant
most of the time - and thought it was kind of cute.
But I did find out that not
everybody said: 1) that you cut on a car, or light; toted a sack; or got table linen like
napkins and tablecloths from a commode! (for a few) :-)
Diane Moore |
| "There never was
a hoss that couldn't be rode."
Iron Duke
|
| How about, "He's
like a dog with a bone." Referring to someone who won't let a subject die. Linda |
"Busy
as a one-eyed man at a burlesque show." |
| How bout, "he's
chasing rabbit's again", as referring too a fellah who takes off on one
subject and runs the conversation around too about fifteen others. Bill Lingle |
Man, she looks like she's
been rode hard and put up wet!! |
"So
poor I wuz gonna paint my rear end white and run with the antelope." Iron Duke |
"Lord willing and the
creek don't rise." |
Perhaps my favorite
old saying and one I use constantly refers to when someone asks you if you want to do
something and you begrudgingly assent by saying....
"Well, I can't dance and it's too
wet to plow..."
Carl Kirton |
"The
buzzards layed you and the sun hatched you." Iron
Duke |
"Now when I was a kid back on the
farm we all had chores to do."
"How old were you when you started doing chores?"
"Why, I was just a baby!"
"C'mon, now--what kind of chores could you do as a baby?"
"I milked." |
You
cant fool me. I've been to a few county fairs and a couple of goat ropings.
The rodeo's not over till the
bull riders ride (forget the fat lady). Iron Duke |
| How about "that dog don't hunt",
.....or I don't believe that. Ever
heard the song..... "Old Buttermilk Sky"?
Jean
Fladger Shanelec Ellsworth,
KS |
I
recall my grandmother saying: "Now
that's too much sugar for a dime!"
Meaning something was too much
effort for what you would get out of it. B. K.
G. |
| How about "I'm going to jerk a knot in your tail". That's what my mother and grandmother used to say when a child was
naughty. I even heard Grandma say that to her grown sons who towered over her.
Mary Floy Katzman |
"I feel like I
wuz rode hard and put up wet." Iron
Duke |
Now
that I've heard all these old sayings, "I'm as happy as a pig in slop." |
POST YOUR FAVORITE OLD SAYINGS
 |