Tomato plant

Here in southern Appalachia spring has got gone fast. Seems like I was just looking at the first emerging daffodil a few days ago and now it’s feeling like swimming hole weather.

Last week we had temperatures in the in the low 90s. Along with the heat our weather has been dry. With the over abundance of rain we’ve had for the last couple of years the dry spell seemed down right strange. I had forgotten what dust billowing up from our driveway looked like.

Thankfully this week we’ve had some good soaking rain and the garden has grown by inches from the bountiful moisture.

Having something like spring ‘get gone’ in Appalachia is beyond common. Here’s a few other examples.

  • He got gone from church before I could ask him about his new job.
  • The years have just got gone from me and its been five year since I’ve been back to see her.
  • Chatter had a dress that she swore she’d never get rid of, but somehow it got gone and she don’t know what in the world happened to it.

Last night’s video: Trying to Save Martins Creek Community Center.

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21 Comments

  1. My family has always said.”Tighter than Dick’s Hat Band.” Time does go so fast as we get older for sure. My Dad would tell all the young folks around him that, “ if you live a long time, you haven’t lived long.” My sweet grandmother would watch my sister & I primp up with makeup & fix our hair just right for a date and she would say, “You girls go right on & primp up because you will turn around 3 times & you’ll be old like me & then it won’t be about pretty anymore. it will be about if you feel like getting out of the bed in the morning .”
    AWGRIFF. I do hope you had another good day today. I prayed last night & again this morning that you would.

  2. Yes, things get gone far too fast these days.

    Here are a couple more phrases I use but don’t know where they came from. When asked how I’m doing, my answer is almost always fair to middlin’. Do you know where that comes from? I’ve been told it has to do with the quality of tobacco or perhaps cotton, but it seems to commonly used for that to be the source.

    The other phrase is ‘gettin’ in the short rows’ meaning that a job of work is about done. That must have an agricultural source. Could it mean that the last rows in a field worked are the short ones?

    Does your book of Appalachian words and phrases mention either of these?

    I was glad to see Katie made it home safe and sound. I could tell by the look on her face that the trip widened her horizons and outlook on life. I’ll bet she never sees Cherokee County the same as she did before the trip.

    I’m a bit distressed to hear that your Martin’s Creek Community Center is suffering from lack of appreciation and use. I’ll bet that with you lightin’ fires under folks that things will change. I suggest you get Josh Briggs (?) and other community notables into a committee to re-kindle appreciation for what an asset you have. A word or 2 from pulpits might also help. Miss Glenda had a good idea to have performances that will attract folks. Reach out to some performer or group with connections to the area and see if they might work in a benefit. I’d suggest bluegrass groups ’cause I favor them, but any group that can draw folks would work, I bet.

  3. I say “got gone” a lot. Spring has definitely got gone and this year has got gone fast and I think everyone would agree, when the grandchildren start coming along, time gets gone faster and faster. Glad Katie made it home safe and enjoyed her trip Those rocks, wow, so beautiful!

  4. One thing I’ve noticed Miss Tipper, is that I use or have heard 90% of the words and phrases that you all use in Appalachia. But I don’t even think about them being any different from the way other folks talk until you make mention of them either on here or your YouTube channel.
    This one in particular i/we use all the time.
    All of the good food GOT GONE before we could get any because we were at the back of the line.

    I really enjoy and appreciate all of your posts on here Miss Tipper, they help by either taking me back in time or by just letting me know I’m not alone in the way I talk and see the world. Thank you!!!!❤️

  5. It doesn’t seem like it’s quite right for spring to get gone so quick when it started so early this year. It seems that spring starting early would mean that it would be a longer spring….is there something wrong with my logic here?
    Oh well, the weather will behave as it pleases, it always has!

  6. Yes, spring is got gone. Tipper when you come up with this combination of words, I have to check myself to see if I use them and I do.

    The trees are out the weeds are out, and the grass along the roads are tall. My wife, every year about this time begins to feel smothered by the vegetation.

  7. I’ve always heard and experienced it myself, that the Carolinas can have all four seasons within a week. My hubby and I missed the 90 degree weather last week due to visiting my sister in Ohio. It was chilly there with rain, but one day it was actually warm. I’m thankful while we were gone my daughter and granddaughter took care of my garden. We must have brought the cooler tempts and rain back with us since this week we’ve had rain in our area of NC and cool enough to open the windows, at least on a couple of days. I’m enjoying the cool weather while I can, because it will get gone soon enough.

  8. I’ve heard the “got gone” statement in my growing up years. I have noticed for years now that it seems time moves faster and faster:) We had a day of hot humid weather and next day it cooled down. We have had enough rain that my squash and cumber plants have grown seemingly overnight. Even the tomatoes, peas and bush green beans look so good.
    I see Katie returned home from her trip out west, and you all were so excited to have her back home!

  9. Wow! Gettin’ gone is such a part of my vocabulary that I was surprised to realize that it is, indeed, peculiar to the Appalachian people…..but it is! Funny! I also realize that yelling “Git!” is the same as telling someone or some animal to “get gone”. LOL! Thanks, Tipper for enlightening me….LOL! I’ve yelled “Git!” at someone who was pestering me many a time!

  10. Things get gone around here and ain’t nobody but me living in this house and I know well and good I didn’t throw them away. Maybe I am not the only one living here.
    I wish we could see a few dry days. Every time the grass has been cut this year we have had to mow it half wet or rush before the next storm comes rolling in. Today is another alert day with heavy rain expected around noon and lasting through tomorrow. My garden is getting mighty weedy.

  11. So many things get gone. Often we don’t see them going, just wake up to find them already gone. Many, probably most, of the BP&A readers, could make a long list. My youth went and then middle age has gone to. I was warned how it would be but somehow taking someone else’s experience as yours is a poor fit. As the saying is, we have to “hoe our own row.”

    Feels like spring is still trying to hold on here even though I’m south of you and out of the mountains. With rain, wind, clouds and nighttime temperatures still in the 60’s summer is being sort of staved off a bit longer. Good for the lettuce and peas but onions have fallen over and mustard has quit blooming and has set seed. Still, the rain we got came up from the Gulf instead of across the Plains which is the pattern for summer. Farewell spring.

  12. Well I’m very glad you’re getting nice and hot weather. Here in southern WV, it’s been cold, cloudy, rainy, and new developments are mist in the air like a spray bottle and clouds hovering up and down the mountain then turning the moisture garnered from the trees to some type of white cloud that rose above the mountains and lifted into the sky… and it’s looking like a repeat day 3 here. Good news if i make it alive til Sunday, things are supposed to improve. Lol. The beans and corn are up and about a foot high (although God and prayer did it.) Mommy used to say if your corn ain’t knee high by July 4, it won’t amount to a thing but fodder. My cucumbers do have some blooms and they been dragged under cover and out so much, they’re schizophrenic. Lol. I’m not bragging on anything cause that’s a kiss of death. Lol Anyway, mommy used to say about folks who live cheaply but could afford way more “ HES AS TIGHT AS DICK’S HATBAND!” I thought you’d get a kick, Tipper dear… be awesome BP& A bunch right where you are today!!! Bring heaven on down and live blessed.

    1. I’m familiar with tight as dick’s hatband, never did know who Dick was. Mom also said, “” he was so tight he would skin a gnat for its taller.”” Tallow.

  13. Tipper.
    If spring has “Got Gone” it is gone and over, indeed!
    Got is the past tense form as well as one of the two alternatives for the past participle.

  14. Mornin’ young lady. The article you published yesterday was very interesting and to the point. Those facilities have seemed to be ‘gone’ by the wayside and some will never return. Mentioning a ‘music’ show could bring attention and possibly with a LOT of attention getting and advertising and more along those lines could help. I used to live in a community called Cherry Log, Georgia, just south of Blue Ridge, the only business was a post office and nearby restaurant, and we worked all year toward a ‘festival’ to raise funds for the upkeep of a building such as Martin’s Creek. We sold homemade jams, jelly, the ladies in the area made and raffled a beautiful quilt (they worked on it for a year) and other things I am sure you guys can conjure up to raise the necessary money for that building. I would love to attend. God Bless.

  15. Yes. The years get gone too fast! I can’t get over how Saturday keeps coming around so quickly every week. I enjoyed this post! Thank you!

    Donna. : )

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