“Afterwards many of us have nary a bit more sleep in us than a screech owl.”
Tipper
Overheard: snippets of conversation I overhear in Southern Appalachia
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Overheard
Overheard
“Afterwards many of us have nary a bit more sleep in us than a screech owl.”
Tipper
Overheard: snippets of conversation I overhear in Southern Appalachia
Subscribe for FREE and get a daily dose of Appalachia in your inbox
8 Comments
Ed Ammons
April 25, 2020 at 1:15 pmSounds like somebody got an awful scare or had an awful amount of caffeine.
aw griff
April 25, 2020 at 10:44 amSanford, I thank E.TN. and E.KY. speak a common language. Well anyways, they used to.
Melinda
April 25, 2020 at 10:01 amA new one on me…but very descriptive!
Ron Stephens
April 25, 2020 at 8:07 amTo have no more sleep left than an owl would just mean to give it up and get up. Growing up, I heard that called ‘the big eye’. Somebody would say something like, “I just got the big eye and couldn’t go to sleep to save me. Finally I just got up and sat out on the porch till daylight.”
Don Byers
April 25, 2020 at 6:45 amMy teenage friend Lake Weaver, would say that when he grew up he wanted be so rich he could afford a “hainged Cadillac”. Meaning the car would be so long it would have to be hinged in the middle to go around corners.
aw griff
April 25, 2020 at 6:13 amThat’s very descriptive of no sleep and I had never heard that one. I often hear barred owls and a great horned owl sometimes, but haven’t heard a screech owl in many years. I used to hear them called scritch owls.
Sanford McKinney Jr
April 25, 2020 at 8:39 amAW, scritch owls was what screech owls were called in the mountains of North Eastern Tennessee where I was born. The same word was used when someone stopped their automobile too quickly on asphalt. “He always stops his car so fast (instead of quickly) that the tars scritch. I jest wush he’d not do that cause it sceers me!” Another expression that was used about automobile tires was, “He took off so fast that he made the tars squeal!”
Ed Ammons
April 25, 2020 at 1:20 pmHad you ever heered somebody squall thur tars when they left. There wudden that much assfault whur I come frum so we always throwed gravel.