Chitter, Morgan, and Chatter – 4th Grade Martins Creek Elementary
help my time interjection A mild exclamation of surprise.
1924 Spring Lydia Whaley 2 Well help my time. 1993 Ison and Ison Whole Nuther Lg 29 = an expression used as a soft exclamation. 1996 Montgomery Coll. (Cardwell).
Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English
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Last week one of the girls’ elementary teachers was cleaning off her computer and found the photo above and sent it to me. When I saw it I said “Help my time wasn’t that just yesterday? How did they grow up so dadjimmed fast!”
Help my time is a saying of exclamation that is still very common in my area of Appalachia.
Tipper
20 Comments
Charline
June 11, 2017 at 9:51 pmOh, sorry I missed this yesterday. “Lord he’p my time!” was one of my Mamma’s favorites.
Ed Ammons
June 10, 2017 at 10:41 pmWell lookee there! My how them youngins have growed since then! I can remember when they was just teeny little things. Plump little dumplins is what they was. They shore got over that did’n they? Sprouted up and took off up the bean pole did’n they?
Actually my “twins” are twenty years apart and different sexes. I wish we could have had identical twins like yours but if wishes were fishes we’d all live in Brasstown!
Yes, that’s did’n, not didn’t. The “t” at the end is a waste of letters, is’n it?
Ken
June 10, 2017 at 5:11 pmTipper,
Good luck to all of you at Vogal State Park in Blairsville tonight. I know the crowd will be pleased with Chitter and Chatter’s singing and their witty comments. …Ken
Lee Mears
June 10, 2017 at 2:53 pmAlso, ‘help my soul’, look who’s here!! Heard all these.
Photo is adorable. -)
Janis Sullivan (Jan)
June 10, 2017 at 1:44 pmTreasure those girls, pictures, and memories. How expressive. They all grow up so fast.
Pam Danner
June 10, 2017 at 1:42 pmOh lord, they do grow up so fast! My baby’s birthday is today and she is 39 today! Dadgum I feel old!
Pam
scrap-n-sewgranny.blogspot.com
Ken
June 10, 2017 at 12:54 pmTipper,
Lordy, the things we experienced when our kids were young! When we lived in Atlanta, my oldest girl would say the word “po-toe-chen” for washing powders and “dodge-e-dodgin” for band aid. Funny how you remember certain things.
Got a question for you — Why did Cleopatra always say “no?” Because she was Queen of Denile. …Ken
Wanda Devers
June 10, 2017 at 11:46 amLord, help my time! is how I most often heard this.
Time just goes way too fast.
mark mojado
June 10, 2017 at 10:56 amVery Beautiful What a treasure !
Ed Ammons
June 10, 2017 at 10:48 amI came up only a couple of ridges, a couple of creeks and a couple of decades away from where you was raised but can’t remember ever having heard the feeling being phrased in exactly that way. Most of the time our expressions are right in sync but that one just slud right by me. Dadgummit!
Ann Applegarth
June 10, 2017 at 10:02 amThat one’s new to me! But it’s the perfect response to the picture. It goes so fast — babies one day,
adults the next. Sigh.
Tamela
June 10, 2017 at 9:32 amYour task, should you choose to accept it, is to dress those sweet girls in similar attire and hairstyles and go back to that school and restage that photo! Every teacher needs a “then and now” wall somewhere in their room!
As for the phrase, “help my time!”, that’s a new one for me but makes a lot of sense considering in general how fast things seem to be changing these days – or is that perception just impressed more firmly on us as we get older?
Jack
June 10, 2017 at 9:23 amDadjim is also an term I haven’t heard in a while. It was in pretty common usage in my youth. They both are very expressive.
Shirl
June 10, 2017 at 9:10 amHelp my time must mean the same thing as well, forevermore. I have never heard the saying in my part of Appalachia.
The girls are so pretty-then and now!
Myra Henry
June 10, 2017 at 9:00 amThat’s a new one on me! Interesting.
Rooney Floyd
June 10, 2017 at 8:53 amSpeaking of exclamations, where did dadjimmed (or dadgummed) come from?
Jim Casada
June 10, 2017 at 8:39 amTipper–I’ve heard variations including “bless my time” and “save my time,” although “help my time” is more common.
Jim Casada
Sue Crane
June 10, 2017 at 8:10 amhaven’t heard that one in 40 forever.
Ron Stephens
June 10, 2017 at 7:59 amYou did it again. Very familiar and yet I cannot recall when I heard it or used it last. That worries me a bit in that it seems to indicate an increasing distance from my roots. But I’m glad you do it, else I wouldn’t know.
Miss Cindy
June 10, 2017 at 6:35 amWell, help my time for sure! Pretty little girls all grown up now. I know that expression well, heard it, used it and it sure fits the picture!