“As kids, if we told our mother we were tired or wanted a chair. She would say “sit down on your fist and lean back on your thumb.”
—Larry Ray Sorrells
I’ve heard the old saying about sitting on your fist and leaning on your thumb, but can’t for the life of me remember where. One of you may have shared it with me or I might have read it in a book.
I love the phrase even though I’ve never used it myself. I love the teasing sound of it. Teasing and joking is a big part of Appalachian culture and I come from a family who really put that trait into practice.
While I’m not very familiar with sitting on your fist and using your thumb as a kick stand I am very familiar with squatting.
I can close my eyes and see men squatted talking around the edge of the church yard. I can see The Deer Hunter and his buddies at the edge of the woods, two or three men standing and one or two squatted while they talk and laugh and go on with one another.
Of course I squat a lot myself. It’s a very handy technique to use in the garden or even when playing with grandchildren.
In the last years of her life Miss Cindy told me she wished she could still squat and work like I did. I could tell the fact that she could no longer squat made her wistful and sad. I’m positive I will feel the same way someday.
Last night’s video: The Thread That Runs So True 18.
Tipper
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Hi Tipper! It was in the poem I shared with you – my mom said it all the time 🙂
Love all the old sayings!
Liz
Liz-thank you!!
yep heard it many a time growing up and even told my kids that a few times when they was really small.. and nuss is another one i’ve used many a time… like yall i struggle with squatting now cause of my knees
I have never heard the ‘sit on your fist’ saying, but my hubby said he’s heard it lots of times…maybe when he was a kid or maybe from guys at work. I wish I could squat and stand up a lot easier than I do now. I, like Shirl, squatted down to get an item on the bottom shelf of a grocery store recently, and was afraid I couldn’t get back up. I still squat to do work in the garden and in the house, but sometimes it’s just a little harder getting back up again—and sometimes it’s much harder—Just a fact of life as we age I suppose.
My brother loved to fish. He would fish for hours. I don’t know how he did it but he would squat for what seemed like hours while he fished. He was a Vietnam vet. A door gunner in the thick of it. One of my most vivid memories was his homecoming. We were so happy that day. He died at 60 with heart failure.
God bless Granny Wilson
I remember my grandfather, Pop, would squat down and sit back on his heels. He could do it for the longest time. Now, my knees tell me,
“Don’t even think about it!”
Good morning Tipper – I have never heard that saying of ‘sitting on your fist,’ but squatting is definitely handy to be able to do – when one can do – but as one ages you find there are times when one gets to squatting or down on hands and knees, if you will be able to get back up again! 🙂 But it remains true, as Psalm 139 states: ‘We are fearfully and wonderfully made…’ Wishing y’all a beautiful day!
Sit on your fist is a new one to me. I don’t believe our family ever used it. With both knees replaced I can no longer squat either. When younger we would do this all the time working in the garden or camping in the woods.
We had a neighbor who could squat for an unlimited time. He was thin and would be just about bent double. Us mean little kids would say (behind his back) that he looked like a toad frog. I’ve heard about sitting on your fist and leaning on your thumb but it’s been a long time ago. I can’t squat because of my knees and because I can’t get up. Can’t crawl on my knees again because I can’t get up. Have to bend over to do anything in the garden which takes some of the joy out of it and my husband has just about done the gardening this year. Speaking of the garden, we are still getting some produce. Amazingly our peppers and tomatoes have recovered enough from disease to get greener again and I canned tomatoes yesterday. But it has been so hot and dry that even our “okrey” is stopping production–never happened here before frost.
This post really made me smile!!!!! I have heard the expression “sit on your fist and lean back in your thumb” for my entire life—I am 69 years old. My father used to tell me this all the time.
Never heard the phrase about sitting on your fist; but as for squatting, I can still do that for a short time.
Gail, the word “nuss” is very familiar. My granny used to say “bring that baby over here and let me nuss him.”
Have a great Saturday!
I’ve heard the saying all my life. My daddy would say, “Sit on your fist and ‘rare’ back on your thumb.” For many years, my job required me to squat and secure aircraft containers with numbered security locks on the bottom of the doors. When I retired from that company, I left the squat there as well. I had to squat to reach an item at the grocery store last week and panicked when I had to get up.
When we were young and sometimes when we thought we had nothing to do we would go to our Mom and say we were bored. Her response was”sit on your thumb and let your feet hang down”. I always thought that was an interesting saying.
At almost 82 years of age I do almost everything either standing or sitting. If I tried to squat I’d be like Randy – flat on my back. If I need to get down on the floor I make sure there’s something to pull up on near by. Otherwise my wife will need to call the rescue squad.
I think I heard that sit on your fist saying in grade school but don’t think much more, if any, since. The comments about squatting remind me of men’s dress pants in the 50’s. They had little pleats at the waist because elsewhere they were cut full. Back then, when a man squatted, they would ‘hitch up their pants’ to get more slack. I’ve probably posted this before. I have not seen (nor done it myself) any man ‘hitch up his pants’ like that in a great long time. How many fellas can remember being able to sit cross-legged, Indian style? And get up quickly and easily? Those were the days. Whatever happened to limber?
I wonder if sit onyour fist has any connection to the expression sit on your hands, as in don’t help or don’t applaud? That seems close to the sentiments expressed by another commentator’s mom, “if that don’t suit you, sit down on your fist and rare back on your thumb”. In Steven Spielberg’s first big hit Sugarland Express (1974), which takes place in west Texas, Goldie Hawn steals the Nocker’s car and Mrs. Nocker complains to her husband that he has gotten her out in the boonies with no place to sit. An obviously disgusted and irritated Mr. Nocker says:”Why don’t you sit on your fist and lean back on your thumb?”
Mike, I lived in Sugar Land for several years. It is not in West Texas but is a suburb of Houston which is in South central Texas. It is in Fort Bend County which is one of the top 10 wealthiest counties in the nation.
I first heard the phrase “sit down on your fist and lean back on your thumb” from a fellow that I worked with many years ago. He also would say about short folks. “ why, he could sit on a dime and dangle his feet “.
Yep, used to say that at the two room school I attended. I too wish I could squat down now but my knees tell me I’d better not even think about it and my back chimes in, amen. Something I’ve been thinking about lately is the word “nuss”. I remember older women used to say, let me nuss that baby, holding up their arms to take the little one, especially if he or she waa fussy. Don’t know where that thought came from unless it’s having our ninth great grandbaby way out in Oregon and wishing I could hold him. I wonder if it is a short form of the word nestle.
I’ve heard the phrase about sitting on your fist. But think it may have been in some old movie because I don’t recall hearing anyone in my family using it.
I wish my knees would let me still squat. It can be quite a useful position at times. Such as retrieving items from lower drawers or cabinets.
I think I may have heard it in an old movie too. I do not recollect hearing it said.
I never heard about sitting on a fist, but every day I wish I could still squat down, remembering how comfortable it used to be, and being able to pop right back up with no effort. And I miss not being able to move the couch or bookcases full of books or move my mattress by myself much less the whole bed. A doctor once told me that women naturally lose muscle mass beginning in their 40’s and by the time they reach their 70’s have lot about 70 percent of their muscle strength. I can attest to the truth of that on top of being barely 5′ 2″. It’s frustrating as the needs to squat and move heavy things don’t stop with old age, and it’s a quandary that such efforts once came so naturally, but the body weakens when the desire to get things done does not.
Amen!
Nancy, I don’t know about women but I know I can no longer pick up things like I use too. At one time I didn’t think anything about picking up things weighing 100lbs or more. I use to help hand load 3 cords at a time of 5ft long sticks of pulpwood (pine) on the back of an old beat up pulpwood truck. I also did a lot of heavy lifting at Michelin. I guess doing these things is the reason I now have back trouble. I am hurting right now because of trying to do what I use to do last Saturday and pulling a muscle in my side.
Isn’t it the truth, Randy! I moved 40 pound bales of hay and five gallon water pails with ease only to pay in later years with back problems/pain. And men, especially on farms, regularly and normally load and unload 100 pound feed bags and for decades, and every one of them in later years has back problems. Knee problems as well.
Totally agree with Miss Nancy. I was very limber, and younger. Now old age has a term I learned to use, but hate to have to, I have no knees and my back is kaput. Thanks to Arthur. Just remember that old song. “Those were the days my friend, we thought they’d never end.”God bless everyone, today, tomorrow and always. Lord help us all in our hour of need. Love J
I might have shared that old saying with you a long time ago. It was common in my mother’s side of the family.
I don’t remember the last time I could squat. As I got older the Muscular Dystrophy I was born with showed up more and more. Now, I have to be so careful not to fall.
Anyway, I can remember seeing people do this a lot when I was young. Or they would hike one leg up on a stump or step or something else to get one foot off the ground.
I’ve heard that all my life but I don’t remember exactly when nor
how it was used. My daddy could squat for what seemed like hours. Mostly I remember him leaning back on a tree but don’t think he always did. I haven’t been able to do it since I was a kid. Again, thanks for the memories.
It’s cooler here today. What I’ve waited for all summer. Hope it is there too.
I’ve heard “sit on your hand and rotate” or just “sit on it” from the Fonz on a tv show but this one is a real card! The painful things crossing my mind I will keep to myself y’all, but I think mom was saying “kids-yall do not know tired yet!” And she would be correct. Youth is wasted on the young. I’m a bender, squatter, dragger when it comes to hard work. Whatever gets it done I reckon! I get down and scoot to clean my floors cause being partly unable to see and get eye level with dirt seems like a good idea and when I’m done they squeak! I canned 4 pints of last green beans and got 6 more pints of tomatoes. My tomatoes just keep coming prettier and more shapely each one!!! God bless us and let’s encourage one another!!! Much love to all and best thoughts for a peaceful joyful day!!!
Our Momma always said if we didn’t like something,
“like it or lump it, and if that don’t suit you, sit down on your fist and rare (rear) back on your thumb”.
My father in law was over 6 ft tall and I watched him squat many times rather than bend over to do things. He worked the last 20 years or so of his working life in a machine shop, I heard him say the owner/ boss told him he didn’t understand how he could squat like that and weld or do the other things he did at the shop. He would squat when picking beans or other things in his garden. I have too much back side to squat, it will off balance the front side!