“I was almost finished when I ran into that box of waspers. Its a wonder they didn’t sting me to death. I just dropped every thing and took off for the house.”
Tipper
Overheard: snippets of conversation I overhear in Southern Appalachia
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I say it almost like you. Although I failed to mention it in my own comment, we dropped the p and made it t. It sounds more like waust.
Tipper,
I love dogs anyway, but in the Song “Girl from West Virginia”, by Ben and Sam Bolla, I swear it looks like that Ole White Dog has White Eye lashes too. He acts like he enjoys their harmony, almost as much as I do Chitter and Chatter’s harmony. But what do I know? I raised 2 girls, so I’m partial. …Ken
Tipper,
It was right in the middle of summertime and I didn’t have no shirt on, me and some more boys were at Edsel Martin’s place, looking for waspers to go fishin’ with. I might have been in the 1st grade, but I don’t think I had started to school yet. Anyway, we walked to the Nantahala River, it was only 3 or 4 miles, so we walked.
Edsel Martin worked for Burlington Mills in Andrews, that was before Baker Furniture took over. He lived in a big, round house and on the outside it was full of wasps nest, and he had a wife and a boy and girl named Bill and Linda. We used a Cane Pole to gounge the nests down, so we could put the babies in a backer can. Sometimes we’d take them home and parch them slightly, so the would stay on the hook better.
One time we were getting Waspers around his house and we found a big ‘en. It must have had 40 or so grown Waspers on the outside and they were very protective of their nests. One had his eyes on me and sprung off that nest and got me right on the top of my shoulder and knocked me down. It hurt something awful. My buddies saw what had happened and put some Mud on it. A Wasper will run you like a Hornet for a long ways, just to get to sting you. Be careful! …Ken
We always pronounced it ” Whaast “, I remember as a child a friend of mine had some of his cousins from Kentucky visiting him and they called them ” War-spers” we thought that was so funny.
In our family we didn’t say ‘wasper’ but just ‘wasp’. I have no idea why. I heard ‘wasper’ as a common thing. Always heard and used “ran into” and “it’s a wonder”. I would think those are, as you say, beyond common everywhere.
I know what waspers are but I’ve never seen a box full. Some people call them worspers and some call them jaspers. Either way is easier to say than wasps which always comes out sounding like waspiziz.
Most everyone I knew growing up referred to them as waspers instead of wasps.
“That ole sow ‘coon was makin’ fer my laig but I laid a boot on her snout and she went a-haulin’ back inta the bushes. Musta had younguns in thare.”
I’ve always called them waspers, and I think their sting is worse than a bee sting. I especially hate the red ones. I’ve never heard tell of running into a box of them, tho.
I don’t like waspers especially the big red ones. they seem to get meaner the hotter it gets, although I’ve only been stung one time this miserable hot summer.