“A great thing about sayings is, we can each make up our own if so inclined. That’s where most of them came from. And if well-phrased and wisely used they got a message across without being mean with it. I have a little page I started entitled “Dad’s Sayings” that you inspired me to make. His one about being contrary was, “He/she would argue with a sign post.” About dishonesty it was, “He’d climb a tree to tell a lie before he’d stand on the ground to tell the truth.” Not a saying but to him a lazy person was “work brickle (brittle)”. He was fond to of the expression, ” If I was a bettin’ man I’d bet…” It’s little things like that which most remind me of him.”
—Ron Stephens 2024
I’m glad Ron started writing down his Dad’s sayings as they come to mind. If you’ve followed me for any length of time you know I like old sayings. I also love how we associate them with the person we hear say them most often.
Over the years I’ve written about sayings often here on the blog. If you’d like to go back and peruse the archive of sayings you can go here.
I was reminded of some of the saying posts last week when I attended the funeral for my friend Suzann’s mother. Her mother, Joann, was born and raised in Nantahala which is a beautiful but remote area of Western NC.
Suzann and I grew up together and then got to work with each other for years at the college. We both have a great love for the language of Appalachia.
One time Suzann sent me a saying she heard her mother say and after we talked about it I asked her to keep a list of Joann’s sayings for me.
I used Joann’s sayings in posts titled “Sayings from Suzann.”
Over the years Suzann, her mother, and I swapped books back and forth that we thought the other would like. About a week before she died I thought of sending Joann a copy of the wonderful book Letters to Lori – The Family History and Stories of Opal Corn Myers written by Barbara League.
The book tells the story of Opal Corn Myers who was an amazing mountain woman who accomplished a lot in the mountains of East Tennessee.
I went to my last text with Suzann to ask for her mailing address and saw it was already there from when Corie asked me to get it for her to send a thank you card after Woodrow’s baby shower.
Unfortunately I didn’t get the book mailed before she died, but I took one to the funeral for Suzann and told her once she read it she’d see why I was so sure her dear mother would have loved Opal as much as I do.
If you’d like to pick up a copy of the book you can find it here.
Last night’s video: We Went On An Adventure.
Tipper
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My daddy had lots of funny sayings. the ones I remember most were teasing ones about a child getting in trouble. I’m gonna tear you up like a sow’s bed. I’m gonna cloud up and rain all over you. Get out of in front of the tv, you’ve been drinking muddy water, I can’t see through you. If you asked for something that you should know was impossible, he would say. You sound like somebody a limb fell on. There were lots more.
I don’t know if I’m dumb as a box or rocks or as dumb as a gross of hammers. I’ve been told more than a few times that if my brains was dynamite I couldn’t blow my nose.
My Dad used the term, “bull headed” with me quite a lot when I was a girl. Can I just say what a comforting, peaceful experience it is to watch your show! With all that has happening in the world, we are grateful to be able to visit your Appalachian home and garden and take a break from the terrible things going on today. Thank you for your channel.
Our lifelong friend, the late Frances, when confused, would say,” I don’t know if I am a’hangin’ out or a’warshin’ “
I just love old sayings. I find myself as I get older saying more and more things my grandparents and parents said. Now, I’m passing this down to the younger generations in my family hoping they will keep the tradition alive.
I love how Ron Stevens started a collection of sayings and was prompted from your past posts. I, too, upon hearing some of yours, decided to write down as many sayings and idioms that I remembered my mom and dad using in everyday language. I still say many of them myself and occasionally one that I had not added to my list. A few examples of these would be:
That’s a heck of a note
That’s all she wrote
Deader’n a doornail
Cat gotcher tongue?
Cute as a button
Like a bull in a china closet
Let’s don’t and say we did
That was the beatin’est thing I ever saw
This gas is gonna be higher’n a cat’s back
She’s crazy as a pet coon.
Sure as the world (it’s gonna rain on our picnic)
Blown to smithereens
I’ve added additional language to some in order to see how they would be used in a sentence. Mom and Dad are both gone now but I get a thrill out of remembering things they have said and even hearing myself say them today.
A former associate pastor that we had would say that “God never says Oops”. Every time someone or I say “0ops” I think of this and am so thankful it is true.
Albert Walter Ammons (my great-granduncle) married Nora Haseltine Cross whose brother Edward Baity Cross was Joann’s father. Not a DNA match but I don’t consider that in maintaining my family tree. My own children are neither a DNA match to me or to each other. Are they any less my children?
Albert Walter Ammons’s sister was Cynthia, my great-grandmother, who died in Copper Hill in 1923.
Hi Tipper: My Polish grandmother must have hated skunks because she had two sayings that included them: For something she heard but didn’t believe, she’d say, “there’s a skunk in that woodpile, but it’ll come out”. Or to teach me about trusting people her comment was, “Be careful! You can paint a skunk another color, but the smell’ll give it away”.
“Old roads, old dogs, old folks, and old ways still have a lot to offer in this sped up world we live in.”
“Life is simpler when you plow around the stump” – “When you wallow with pigs expect to get dirty” – “A bee is faster than a John Deere tractor” – “Don’t corner something that is meaner than you.”
I’ve always heard and use it still today “I can spit and be in …” It refers to how close you live to a place or a person. Most older folks around my neck of the woods in NC have heard it. However, the younger folks look at me like “why you spitting “
Plus them same young folks look at me funny when I say “in my neck of the woods “… I have no doubt they think I must live in the actual woods.
My Mammaw said had a saying about lying that was very similar to Ron’s dad’s saying. She would say about one of our neighbors “She would climb a tree to tell a lie when she could stay on the ground and tell the. I’ve also heard (and used) the one about the sign post. We go a step further and say “they would argue with a sign post with no sign on it.
Hope you have a wonderful weekend and that your air conditioner is installed and working. Supposed to start getting warmer this weekend and into next week.
Useless as a screen door on a submarine.
Strong as an ox and as stubborn.
Tipper, I enjoyed watching you and Matt riding to Copper Hill. It’s so close to Murphy, you could almost holler over there. You’re an absolutely wonderful couple in a world of misfits! You’re adorable really. Im thinking of wall mounted propane heaters and propane fireplace logs myself. It’s so cold I can see my breath sitting here outside with the sun shining. That Virginia Creeper has creeped up on everything there at Copper Hill hasn’t it? I actually saw some for sale at Lowe’s-somebody lost their minds to sale that to an unwitting, clueless cultivator! Of course, it’s a way to get even so I’m placing it by the scads on state and city lawns and just everybody I disagree with. That’d show ‘em! They’ll never get rid of the creepy creeper! I’m moved out (pooped out) and awaiting to get into my next home because the owner lady split 25 acres up and the original land deed (not a copy) is missing in action, but they’re working on it. You know I had a feeling she sold her land for her kin to get a stipend. I’d surely have liked to have 3 acres instead of one. Old Charlotte who I bought the next house from ain’t slow on getting money-She’s got a hustle or many. Plus she doesn’t look like a farmer in her golden years. She is loaded though is my guess. It feels good being homeless actually. I got no strings to hold me and no attachments so it feels great to be able to SHAG IT when I feel the heat or just gotta hit it. I’m seriously wondering why I’m not in an RV headed to QUARTZSITE for the winter…hmmmm there’s a thought. No home-no worries. Ain’t it the truth? Anyway, Blessings to you all and may you be blessed in the city and blessed in the country… May your hands and heart prosper in the Good Lord this day! He’s the only way to make it in this world.
We love the sayings from our family history and community. Some have disappeared but we say them to ourselves to keep in practice. Our grands know many of them now. Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without is their favorite !
One of my enduring favorites, probably because it goes to the heart of a true Appalachian mindset, is” Make do with what you’ve got, and if you ain’t got it, do without.”
My Grandpa Joe, who richly deserved that wonderful regional description, “quare,” when it came to his eccentricity, could be difficult, mule stubborn, and sometimes downright argumentative. If someone, such as his adoring but headstrong understudy or a grandson, failed to heed his words, he would eventually shake his head in disgust and say, “You’ll larn.” The older and more skeptical I become of much of what goes on in today’s world, the more I appreciate the fact that he was right.
Incidentally, a great topic.
My Daddy only had an 8th grade education, he quit school to help his sharecropper family. He had many sayings, some I don’t remember. One of his sayings about “uppity” people was”no bird ever flew so high that he didn’t have to land sometime.” Another about a “ know it all person” was “give them enough rope and they will hang themselves.” One of my coworker friends would say this about one of our lying coworkers, “ instead of a grain of salt, you had better have a whole box of salt with you when you are around him.” I read a story about a man saying his wife was so contrary, that if she fell in a river and drowned she would float up stream.
Randy, Your dad with an 8th grade education was probably smarter than 75% of Americans today. I encounter college graduates that apparently have about a 4th or 5th grade education.
Jackie, I heard a local school administrator say children didn’t have to be as a smart today as in the past, they now have smart phones and such things to depend on. I wonder what happens if the phone battery goes dead or they loose their phone signal. My Daddy was not ignorant, he could read, do basic math and similar things and had a boat load of common sense. I worked with a good man that finished near or at the top of his West Point class, he was so book smart, he was ignorant. He was a basket case when it came to common sense. He was not able to do his job and was finally let go. Another saying, you can send a smart common sense person to college and make him dumb.