It’s time for this month’s Appalachian Vocabulary Test.
I’m sharing a few videos to let you hear the words and phrases. To start the videos click on them.
1. Sang digger: a person who searches for and collects wild ginseng to sell. “There’s not as many sang diggers today in my area as their used to be. Less places to hunt it and less people interested in walking the mountains to make money.”
2. Sawmill Gravy: gravy from meat drippings made with cornmeal. “I never liked sawmill gravy when I was a girl but I love it today. We most often call it cornmeal gravy.”
3. Say what: used as a response asking a person to repeat a question or comment. “Say what? I couldn’t hear you for the tv.”
4. Scare up: to find or fashion by deliberate effort, prepare (especially on short notice). “Granny’s always trying to scare up this or that color of yarn as she crochets for her family. Sometimes we take her to other Walmarts to buy it and sometimes I find it online for her.”
5. Scatteration: a dispersion, state of being scattered. “I had forgotten what it was like to have little ones in my house. Our living room is in a constant state of scatteration from Ira and Woodrow’s toys.
All of this month’s words/phrases are common in my area of Appalachia except scatteration. I don’t hear anyone use that one.
Hope you’ll leave a comment and tell me how you did on the test.
Last night’s video: Family History and Stories of Opal Corn Myers 21.
Tipper
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Grew up on sawmill gravy and biscuits. Oh, my friend, the late Wendell Patterson, used say when something was not square, “That thing is anti-godlins”
The first four are as common as dirt in my experience.
Scatteration ? Well, hit ain’t too fer from ‘scattering’, which is what we allus called it.
1. My parents were big sang diggers. My mama loved climbing mountains and finding it—she would go now if she was able. They would dig it and sell it and save their money for Christmas. It was how they paid for Christmas gifts for many years. My hubby also loves to go sang digging. I like it but I am always worried about snakes. 2. I have never eaten sawmill gravy. My mama always made poor man’s gravy, which is just milk gravy made with vegetable shortening and flour, and all kinds of yummy meat gravies. She never used cornmeal. I basically learned about it from you, Tipper. 3. I have heard people say they were gonna go ‘scare up’ something for dinner. 4. I always say and hear ‘say what’? 5. I have never heard scatteration. But it’s a very interesting word.
Tipper only knew or heard one in growing up “scare up.” Mother made the best in the world “Milk Gravy” and I try to make it but even though it comes close to Mothers I think she made the best. It was made with flour and Daddy made the best cat-head biscuits. Oh my goodness, how I would love to have one now to eat with Milk Gravy poured over it.
When you read Opal’s story and was talking about trails used as short cuts, I immediately thought when I was a child visiting my Grandmother down in NE MS, there was a family across the old red-dirt road that had a daughter my age. We had a short cut across the road where I jumped a tiny ditch to get into her yard. That tiny ditch was lined with beautiful white sand that washed in ripples when it rained. To me it was always a treat to see the beauty in it.
Have to say Happy Birthday to Austin!! He is such a fine young man, husband and daddy! God bless!
I know all of them except scatteration which is a good one but never heard it before.
growing up my mother always made gravy, one kind of the other. She called her sawmill gravy that made with bits of sausage in it.
“Scatteration” was not known to me until reading this. I have heard of “meal gravy”, but never heard it referred to as “sawmill gravy”. At our house, sawmill gravy was “white” or thickening gravy. It was made from meat drippings, flour, salt/pepper, and milk. Some mornings, and always with country ham, we’d have “red-eye” gravy also called “grease gravy”. It was made from lard or bacon grease used to heat the country ham. Black coffee was added to taste. I liked a big spoonful over grits (usually small indention filled with the mixture), but most often ate it over a halved biscuit. I have heard older generations refer to this as “soakie”. Also, could be a biscuit crumbled into a bowl or cup with this or just coffee. My Great-grandaddy (circa 1882) would eat with a spoon a biscuit that had been crumbled into small pieces and placed in a large coffee cup.
Like most of the commenters today, I am familiar with all but the last one. Several years ago Walmart began to reduce their area of craft supplies. Sometimes it’s hard to “scare up” the color you want there now. When we are near a Michaels or a Hobby Lobby that has a sale on yarn my wife will fill the car trunk with yarn.
The only word I am not familiar with is scare up. I don’t think Mom ever made breakfast without gravy. Cornmeal (meal, as we called it) was more readily available and served as a good substitute for flour during times of hardship. I ate plenty of both meal and flour gravy as a child, but I would eat dirt before I would eat any kind of gravy now.
I grew up hearing all but scatteration. My daddy used the term “sang” when describing how he and some of his brothers went “sanging” for ginseng up in the mountains of eastern KY. They were orphaned and had no money to buy food, so they sold ginseng.
My Dad’s people were sangers, especially my PawPaw Aust. He was also a bee charmer and could call the bees to him by banging on an old pot.
When our bees swarmed Dad taught me to put a new hive under the tree and bang on a dishpan. He said the bees think its thunder and get in the hive for protection from the storm.
The only one I was unfamiliar with was scatteration. That’s a new one for me.
Woke up feeling puny this morning but think I will survive. I knew all of them except for number 5, but am very familiar with toys being scattered all over the place. I sure wish I still had this problem with my children and grandchildren. Now they are all grown and my daughter is dead, I never ate sawmill gravy made with cornmeal, always flour. My all time favorite breakfast is fried fatback, streak of lean, or side meat and gravy made from the grease and droppings along with homemade biscuits. We often ate this for breakfast when I was growing up. It was cheap. I would “bust a gut” to have some now along with a good home grown cantaloupe. By the way my family name for this gravy was “hunky doo gravy.”
I hope that was “drippings” and not “droppings” in your gravy! That Spellcheck likes to sneak one in on you when you’re distracted!
God bless you Ed
My aunt Merrill made it when she ran out of flour. She told us they used sawdust from a sawmill back when times were rough. I believed her at the time. I thought it was good but a little gritty.
Heard em all but attraction and here they are just called SANGERS for ginseng hunters. I know of a huge old patch right under everybody’s nose, but I will take it to my grave yall-take it to the grave…have a good wet one!!! In a month I’ll probably be crying for rain…Zipper (your cat name sake) is always busy from the time her sweet eyes open until she passes out tired… she’s small, sweet and busy just like you, Tipper!
I’m not so sure about scatteration but definitely scatterfied and scatterpated.
Well snap
Good morning! I like Sawmill gravy, but prefer Sausage Gravy. I’ve said “Say what” many times, but can’t say I’ve herded the other two before until now.
4 of 5 for me. Do not recall ever hearing “scatteration” but I like that it is self-explainatory. Don’t think anybody would have trouble understanding that. [By the way, Tipper, I mixed up two bible verses yesterday. One actually speaks of “rooted and grounded” and another one speaks of “settled”. I do not like to misquote scripture even if it seems to make no apparent difference in meaning. There is always the likelihood that a better understanding would show more significance than first seen. It just isn’t something for me to allow myself to be casual about. I’ll have to be more disciplined about it, which will be good for me.] Mighty cool here this morning for the last day of May, low 50’s and in the 40’s up in Rabin County.
I’ve heard of sawmill gravy but never had it. My mama only ever made milk gravy with flour. I knew “scare up” and “say what?” –didn’t know it was Appalachian. I knew the one about “sang” from reading books set in Appalachia.
a big black bear came to the feeding station this morning, the closest experience I’ve ever had, God bless it
Love these tests!
Meal gravy is one of our favorites. My papaw was born in 1902 and his favorite was meal gravy. When I was a youngun, around 20, I made it for him the first time and I was as nervous as a cat on a hot tin roof. I took pains with it and when he told me how good it was I thought I’d hit the lottery. He lived to be just shy of 94 and I still miss him so.
Scare up is the only one I knew.
well good morning to you all this morning… this months test i done real good on…knew em all cept the last one and i sorta knew it…hadn’t heard it since i was a wee little thing though and knew what it was right off…and i don’t like sawmill gravy, never did.. Mommy must not have either cause i don’t ever remember having it at home, but remember attempting to eat it at friends houses…nope didn’t like it..i was a pretty picky eater…still am i reckon