Consequences
Don’t let your mouth write checks that your rear end can’t cash.
Compliments
Saying something nice makes the old feel young and the poor feel rich.
Anxiety
Worryin’ gives small things big shadows.
Hard Times
Looks like he’s on the backside of hard times.
Dishonest
You lie so much, you have to hire someone to call in your dogs.
Complaining
You’re so ungrateful, you’d gripe with a ham under each arm.
Contrary
If you throwed her in the river, she’d float upstream.
Honest
If he tells you that rooster dips snuff, you can look under its wing and find the can.
—Butter my Butt and Call Me a Biscuit And Other Country Sayings, Say-Sos, Hoots, and Hollers written by Allan Zullo and Gene Cheek.
I love all the colorful sayings. Many of them make you smile and if you ask me just as many of them are filled with wisdom and real meaning.
Today’s Thankful November giveaway is a used copy of the small book Butter my Butt and Call Me a Biscuit And Other Country Sayings, Say-Sos, Hoots, and Hollers written by Allan Zullo and Gene Cheek. To be entered in the giveaway leave a comment on this post. Giveaway ends November 18, 2024.
Last night’s video: Delicious Pancakes, Bacon, Scrambled Eggs, & Cherokee Purple Tomatoes for Breakfast.
Tipper
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Hi to all from Wisconsin! First time on here, love everything about Appalachian ways of life.
Some of my Dad’s sayings:
That guy is so skinny he could take a bath in a ketsup bottle.
About a clumsy person, he’s about as handy as a one arm paper hanger (toilet paper hanger)
These old sayings make me smile.
My Daddy and Mommy are both gone on how, but here are some of the sayings I remember them sharing from my childhood. 🙂 ❤
“When they die you can say there lays a body of truth cause it never came out.”
“Wait is what broke the wagon down.”
“They’re so sorry they wouldn’t hit a lick at a snake if it was trying to bite them.”
“You’ll be able to count your true friends on one hand from the time you’re born until you die.”
“Two wrongs don’t make a right.”
“You don’t miss your water till your well runs dry.”
“Actions speak louder than words.”
“The proof is in the pudding.”
“They gave it a lick and a promise they’ll do it better next time.”
“If you don’t do it right the first time you’ll have to lick your calf over again.”
“You can’t do wrong and get by.”
“If you give somebody enough rope they’ll hang themself.”
“If you give him an inch he’ll take a mile.”
Have you ever heard “He’s as crooked as a dog’s hind leg.” Or “Pretty is as pretty does.” Or “I’d like to buy her for what she’s worth and sell her for what she thinks she’s worth” or “He’s as tight (stingy) as the bark on a log.” I’ve got a lot more sayings because I was raised by a true Appalachian Mother and a Bonafide Yankee from Cleveland Ohio.
I would love to have this book, Tipper! These old sayings are so funny and interesting! Thank you so much!
My nanny used to have some good ones. I used to say, “Hey…” alot. Inevitably I’d hear, “Hay is for horses.” Another would be when we were going somewhere and I wasn’t quite ready I’d holler, “WAIT!” I’d hear back, “What? You got one tied to you?”
My grandmother whom I called mama would say ” child, you worry the horns off a brass billygoat” Being a child I wondered about those brass billygoats out there somewhere. I would love to win the book. I plan on implementing more old sayings into my every day conversation just to make people think more. And to also cause myself to laugh at their clueless expressions.
My Grandma had a million + 1 of these. Where you going, Grandma? Crazy! You wanna go with me? That girl got slapped by an ugly tree and was hit by every branch on the way down! Use your head for more than a hat rack! Or… Use your head for more than something to hold your ears apart! Go play outside, but it’s raining Grandma! That’s alright. Sugar melts, but turds don’t!! So many more!
My Grandma had a million + 1 of these. Where you going, Grandma? Crazy! You wanna go with me? That girl got slapped by an ugly tree and was hit by every branch on the way down! Use your head for more than a hat rack! Or… Use your head for more than something to hold your ears apart! Go play outside, but it’s raining Grandma! That’s alright. Sugar melts, but turds don’t!! So many more!
Very interesting sayings! I’ve only heard a couple of them from the excerpt. But, they’re funny, nonetheless.
I’ve heard the first one alot growing up. Never heard the others ones though.
Some of these sayings are oldies but goodies and some really had me thinking!
My Daddy and Mommy are both gone on how, but here are some of the sayings I remember them sharing from my childhood. ❤
“When they die you can say there lays a body of truth cause it never came out.”
“Wait is what broke the wagon down.”
“They’re so sorry they wouldn’t hit a lick at a snake if it was trying to bite them.”
“You’ll be able to count your true friends on one hand from the time you’re born until you die.”
“Two wrongs don’t make a right.”
“You don’t miss your water till your well runs dry.”
“Actions speak louder than words.”
“The proof is in the pudding.”
“They gave it a lick and a promise they’ll do it better next time.”
“If you don’t do it right the first time you’ll have to lick your calf over again.”
“You can’t do wrong and get by.”
Living here in Berks County, when I was little, I often heard….”The hurrier I go, the behinder I get”.
Another saying I heard when I was little, referring to someone who talked all the time was….”She must of been vaccinated with a victrola needle”
Always made me laugh.
Thanks for sharing.
I’ve heard some of these. Bet there are more. Still enjoy reading this blog each day.
I love “isms”!! My daddy had a ton of them!! One of my favorites is “behind who’s barn”? He would say this if he didn’t understand what you were talking about or used a big, long word he didn’t know.
My folks said, “She’s as quare as they come!” Quare (queer or strange)
Those sayings sure had me smiling
I’ve heard all of them or a version. When someone asks how long we’ve been married and my wife answers with the number of years I add, “That’s a long time with the same woman.” When I was a young fellow and was in a situation where things were getting hostile, I sometimes heard, “Call your mom and tell her she can sell the outhouse cause you won’t need it anymore. Your (backside’s) mine.”
I have been reading the comments and like someone else said, I have heard many of them. Someone else mention their dad being gone now for 30 years and him having some sayings. My Daddy was a plain simple man and died on Jan. 20, 1991. I remember him saying this to me after we were around a person that was being “uppity,” It was “no bird ever flies so high that it does not have to land at sometime.” This man we were around landed real hard a few years later.
Love this trip down memory lane! My brother liked to say: “He doesn’t have the common sense that God gave a cracker.”
I’m originally from Louisiana but have lived in Texas for over 40 years of my 84.
When I was a kid and questioned something that my grandpa had told me, he would tell me “Son if I tell you a rooster will pull a plow, don’t ask no questions, just hook ‘em up”.
Hilarious !!! And also wise !!!
Thank you for sharing !!!
Thank you also for those in the comments! Always enjoyable ! 🙂
What a fun book !:)
I always enjoy country sayings. Thank you for sharing. I would love to win a copy of the book.
Loved all of these sayings! They were awesome! I heard one once that sin is as water to a leaky boat. The more you let in the faster you sink.
I swanny i think i have heard pretty much every single one of these sayings (or a version of) both the ones you shared and the ones shared by other readers… my granny would say “you ain’t got the sense God gave a goose” , we “piddled around” when we wasn’t doing nothing and prob my mom’s favorite was “shut the door, you wasn’t raised in a barn” least its the one i remember hearing her say the most prob cause we were always running in an out …
These are great. Thanks.
These sure brought a smile to my face this morning. Hadn’t heard many of them but they sure pack a bunch of wisdom in them.
A friend of mine often says when someone says or does something hurtful .”You just crushed all the cookies in my bag”.
I’ve always heard that a person was “jumping stumps backwards” when they were excited (not to be confused with the medical jumping stump syndrome). Don’t know if this was just a local saying.
My Momma used to tell me I’d argue with a signpost.
Fun stuff! These sayings make a feller pause & think.
I enjoyed your post and all the comments. My dad had so many sayings while we were growing up. He’s been gone for over 30 years, but I still smile when I think about those sayings! ☮️
I can’t remember phrases my grandparents used to say–only words like “dumbfounded.” I sure would be dumbfounded if I won that book!
Up here in northwest Ohio
I’ve never heard any of these!
I always know to scroll all the way down to find Randy’s wise early morning comments :). My daddy was a farm boy from Florida, and it surprises me how many of these thoughtful and true sayings are common with states being so far apart. I think it must be the deep down wise country soul that relates. This book would be a fun remberance of him.
When my granddaddy died grandmama moved into a house that was small but just right for her. Well, when we all got together to eat and we would be trying to wash dishes and clean up, she’d always say, “this kitchen is so small, you couldn’t cuss a cat in it.” We’d always laugh. I just love old sayings.
The version I always heard was, “This room’s so small if you cussed a cat you’d end up with a mouthful of fur.”
Good morning everyone!! Greetings from Oklahoma.
The old sayings are priceless. Just last week I heard myself say to someone “Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit”… that person…let’s just say..had no clue what I said. I just walked off…shaking my head! Clueless absolutely Clueless
Put my name in the pot, as this book sounds like another keeper!
Prayers to all, tell Granny hi ❤️
Insult: You don’t have the brains God gave you.
I never quite understood it, but my Mother sure liked saying it.
Thanks for sharing these tidbits. My wife records these sayings and shares them with our Sunday School class at church when she writes the weekly newsletter.
I don’t know if they came from Appalachian roots, but my dad (and his siblings) had two sayings I always thought were hilarious: “It’s raining like a cow peeing on a flat rock” and “He’d complain if you hung him with a new rope.”
Douglas, those were two of my Dad’s favorites. He was an Iowa farmer.
I love the old sayings! Dad used to say the food was so good it would make your tongue slap your brains out. A saying I read in A Tall Woman described someone lazy when she said, “He has heart dropsy.” He drops in a chair and doesn’t have the heart to get up.
Sounds like an interesting book.
Made me smile reading all of these old sayings! I’ve heard a couple of them or something similar from my grandparents growing up.
Old sayings like these always crack me up and there is actually a lot of truth in them as well!
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.
I love the humor and wisdom of old sayings. The ones you shared are really good.
I love to hear people talk like I do
I’m not good at remembering these so started a list years ago. Will add these. It’s amazing to me the power in these simple words, so many coming from people with little formal education. Thanks for brightening our day.
Love those sayings. Wouldn’t it be great if we got on board and started saying those things to make people smile and wonder what we’re up to?
I like the one about worry casting shadows so much that I copied it down in my Commonplace Book.
Love these sayings and many other ones we’ve heard all our lives. Hope people with country roots continue to create new sayings that communicate meaning so very well!
I love all of these! I may have to invest in a copy of that book!
I love these old sayings. Thank you for sharing!
All oldies but goodies here! I bet that book will have you laughing and thinking… Have a good day if you can in this cold… May the Lord be with us all and especially our friends in NC and TN who are really going through it and it’s getting cold now so there are new concerns…. Bless you all, especially Granny and the babies….
I loved reading these sayings. some of them really cracked me up. Just wondering if you’ve ever heard of a lasko trade. My Mom used to say it when I was growing up. If you heard something nice said about someone in the family, you’d say to the person who’d been complimented, “I’ve got a lasko trade for you.” If they could tell you (truthfully) a compliment they’d heard about you, then she’d tell us what nice thing she’d heard about us and who said it. If you couldn’t recall something nice that had been said about her (or whoever had the trade), you’d just say, I’ll have to owe you one, and she’d tell you the nice thing she’d heard but not who said it. I’ve said, “I’ve got a lasko trade for you” to a couple of folks over the years and they did not know what it was; just wondering if you were familiar with that.
Jane-I’ve never heard that before thank you for sharing it 🙂
Hi! my husband’s mother taught him this. I have never heard of it, and nobody in my family had! It is cute! (If a bit time consuming-ha!)
I get so tickled at these sayings. Moma and daddy never allowed us kids to be disrespectful, fight or lazy. she would say ” I will whip you til you pee then whip you for peeing.”
I use many of these sayings even now! This brought a chuckle to my day.
Thank You God Bless
What a great way to start the day. I had not heard any of the ones you listed.
I love old sayings. My Daddy said some people would complain if they worked in a pie factory and got paid to eat! He passed away in 1986 – his soft speech was sprinkled with words like “kindly” and if he wasn’t doing much, he would say he was “just loafing.”
Even the book title is funny! Love these sayings.
Mornin’ Tipper! These made me chuckle and one or two made me take stock. Thank you for sharing and I hope you have a wonderful day!
I enjoy hearing these old sayings. They are so much fun and would love to win a copy.
I love these old sayings. They’re more expressive than alot of things people say nowadays.
I love all the old sayings and words of wisdom. That is one of the things I miss most about my dad.
Such good wisdom! Love it!
I heard my aunt say “he’s so lazy he wouldn’t take a job as a taster in a pie factory “.
I haven’t heard many of these.
Is that were “pit” cooked barbeque comes from? What was that old saying, a chicken in every pot, a ham in every pit?
When you have vertigo, feel faint or dizzy, my favorite saying is “I was hoeing corn in the wrong row.” Love to use old sayings!
Everyone have a great day!
Randy, I love the bulldog saying! I had never heard that one. This book would make us all laugh reading it, and that is important nowadays. I read the sayings in the blog to the guys here at work and they laughed out loud!! Hope that gave them a good start to their day. Love to all of you and Granny too.
Love these old sayings. I remember my grandmother saying some of them.
I love to hear old sayings like that. Seems like they are not used as much as in the past. I try to keep them going with every chance I get. This was a good way to start today. Thanks Tipper.
A present day one I heard: “Groceries are higher than Willie Nelson on a Snoop Dog tour bus.”
As my Great grandma use to say ” that makes my rear-end want to dip a pinch of snuff”. As a child I never knew what that meant. She was a strong Appalachian women from Beaver dam holler in KY.
Now this book sounds hilarious! I’ve not heard these sayings before.
These sayings do indeed make me smile and remind me of my mountain heritage! When, here in the rarefied world of Raleigh, I use some of these expressions, I often am met with a hearty laugh and recognition of the profound truth represented. Many people have never heard some of these sayings and they need to be preserved.
I would very much enjoy the copy of the book!
Next time you meet a Raleigh native, take his picture. I hear they’re going extinct.
(Spent the first half century of my life there. Came into the world at Rex Hospital on St. Marys Street.)
I love those old sayings and would love a copy of that book! Thanks for all your hard work!
Your post made me think of my Mom. We lost her in 2020 of Alzheimer’s. Her saying was “ the road to hell is paved by people with good intentions “. I’ve been thinking of her a lot and still miss her every day.
Sandra-I’m sorry you lost her.
I laugh and love the image of someone complaining with a ham under each arm! That’s perfect to describe whining!
Have a wonderful day!
Fun reading!
I just love those sayings.
When my youngest was around 8-9 years old, I said that God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. She thought I was funny and had some weird Southern sayins. We all laughed and told her that was a scripture, not a Southern sayin. lol
Whenever the preacher preaches from that Bible verse it always brings a smile to my face.
Reading those sayings were a great way to wake up this morning!
There’s good wisdom in these sayings. I’ve only heard the first one, but I would love to read more.
Re: complaining – another saying is ‘complaining with a loaf of bread under your arm.’ I like the two ham saying better.
There’s a lot of truth in those colorful old sayings!
In the 1940’s my mom used to think it was hilarious to say “Well dip me in lard and call me greasy!”. It was used to express great surprise about something. I wonder if anyone else has ever heard that.
My aunt Merrill used to say “Well I’ll be dipped in whipped cream!”
I’ve heard and used, “Well I’ll be dipped in trombone oil.”
Good morning
Those are very colorful with meaning in each.
One of my parent’s favorite sayings was “he/she has a hard row of stumps to hoe.”
Would love to read! Starting my day with you and coffee.
That’s funny
I love the wisdom found in the old sayin’s
I would really enjoy that book! The quotes are so good! Loved your video last night, it made me hungry
I’m praying for all who are facing the aftermath of the hurricanes and wildfires, tornadoes, etc. I’m always so thankful for the help and hope that is being given. God bless you and yours❤❤
Oh I bet there are some funny ones in there. My husband likes to say the “your mouths writin’ checks…” line when he’s playing around with our son so I’m sure that will live on to the next generations haha. I once heard someone say ” That really burnt my biscuits!” When she was referring to something making her mad and it always stuck with me- I’ll say it ever now and again. I just love the poetical way people used to say things.
The very first one made me giggle pretty hard. I had never heard it and it made me think of the younger ones coming up that don’t know how to write a check…..
This book definitely sounds like a fun and interesting read.
Always fun to see new old sayings that I have not heard.
My great grands laugh at my old country sayings.
LOL! Love the name of that book. Would love to have it on my coffee table!
Those were some funny sayings. I’m pretty sure I know the gal that would float upstream if you threw her in the riverthanks for the laughs and the wisdom behind them!
Those were some funny sayings. I’m pretty sure I know the gal that would float upstream if you threw her in the riverthanks for the laugh and the wisdom behind them!
Those sayings did indeed make me smile this morning. I’m sure I will look for ways to use some of them . Thank you for sharing.
One of my favorites is. “Today is the Tomorrow you worried about Yesterday. Was it worth it?”
We would say this about a coworker that was always acting like he was tough or mean. “He has a bulldog mouth and a chihuahua butt to back it up.” I did change one of the words. This has to do with honesty “You can bet the bank on anything they tell you.”