that’s how the cow ate the cabbage
An expression hillfolk use to indicate that the speaker is laying it on the line, telling it like it is, getting down to brass tacks—with the connotation of telling someone what he or she needs to know but probably doesn’t want to hear. According to Little Rock attorney Alston Jennings, who submitted this term to Richard Allen’s February 2, 1991, “Our Town” column in the Arkansas Gazette, the expression has its roots in a story about an elephant that escaped from the zoo and wandered into a woman’s cabbage patch. The woman observed the elephant pulling up her cabbages with its trunk and eating them. She called the police to report that there was a cow in her cabbage patch pulling up cabbages with its tail. When the surprised police officer inquired as to what the cow was doing with the cabbages, the woman replied, “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you!”
—Mountain Range A Dictionary of Expressions From Appalachia To The Ozarks written by Robert Hendrickson
I had never heard the saying “that’s how the cow ate the cabbage” until sometime last year. Someone heard Ira babbling as babies will do when they first find their voices and said that he was telling how the cow at the cabbage. As you might guess I loved the saying and started asking Ira and Woodrow if they were trying to tell me about the cow eating the cabbage every time they jabbered.
I was looking through my copy of the book Mountain Range A Dictionary of Expressions From Appalachia To The Ozarks when I saw the entry. I like the saying even more after reading the elephant story 🙂
Back in 2012 long time friend of the Blind Pig and the Acorn Ethelene Dyer Jones shared this story of elephants in Appalachia.
“When I was a child, my father took me with him to the Jeptha Souther Mill about a mile from our house. Jeptha, the miller, was my father’s cousin. He ground both cornmeal and flour—on different stones, as I remember. It was a water-powered mill, with water coming to the mill from—yes—a pond on Choestoe Creek! And one time, so the story goes (sometime before my day) when Barnum and Bailey Circus came to Blairsville, the elephants were being driven by the mill and the millpond, and those big mammals got loose from their tenders and got into the Souther Millpond. So the story goes, they like never to have gotten the elephants out of the millpond! (And yes, as far-fetched as it seems, this was a true story that happened in the mountains of North Georgia at the old Souther mill!).”
Last night’s video: Family History and Stories of Opal Corn Myers.
Tipper
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I use the saying I don’t chew my cabbage twice, meaning I don’t repeat myself. Kind of off topic, but the cabbage got me thinking!
Good morning from Central Oklahoma,
Lol….I just used that saying this week, I was soooo mad about the situation I could have “spit nails”!!
Doesn’t take much for this red head to fire it up with words…. My favorite saying is “you can’t cure STUPID”…I’ll leave it at that.
Have a great weekend
Used this phrase all my life, as did my momma and daddy. Usually heard this when I was in trouble
I have never heard this. So funny! Can’t wait to use it on someone
I enjoy your YouTube shows so much.
I live at Choestoe and Ethelene once wrote a bio on me in the newspaper. And that is how the mop flops!!!! That’s the way the wind blows!! By crackly!!
My mama always says “well that’s just the way the cookie crumbles”.
I have used and said it all my life
I’ve never heard this phrase before but it’s a good one and the elephant story is hilarious! Have a great Saturday everyone!
I never heard how the cow ate the cabbage before, but I like it.
I have heard the phrase and used it all of my life and I will be seventy in August—I have never heard any stories about elephants connected to it lol here in Oklahoma it could mean anything from ‘that’s just how things go’ to ‘I am going to tell him just how the cow ate the cabbage’ (which another way to say that would be ‘I am going to give him what for’ hope you are still avoiding the stomach bug and certainly hoping granny is also avoiding sickness
I have never heard this phrase before but the elephant story sure is a funny one! It was good for a laugh this morning.
Out of all the animals in the world, I’d like to have an elephant. They’re smarter than given credit for and I think they’re my favorite animal. If I did see a elephant loose in a garden or woods I’d have to rub my eyes and tap myself to ensure I wasn’t hallucinating… I remember the circus coming when I was wee small and the elephants captivated my attention then-simply incredible! I hear those grinding wheels are fetching big bucks near Nashville where the “stars” place them on their large properties as cool art. I think we need to get mills up and running personally! Who wouldn’t pay more to buy local?????? Hugs to Ira and Woodrow and I wish them health, happiness and good things!!! I bet they’re walking around and getting into stuff now-the best times of their lives! Around 1 to 4 years old is the very best!!!I wish those years lasted. I try to recall them when I get sassed by my grown kids, but it sure can be hard….
When our daughter was a young teenager she asked why we kept telling about things she did as a toddler. I replied, “We have to keep telling those to remind ourselves why we kept you.”
I believe my Mom said that but only rarely and I do not think I ever heard anyone else say it in southeast KY in the 50s and 60s. Seems there are quite a few elephant stories from the traveling circus days. There is one of an elephant being hung. And there is one I heard of an elephant one year later taking deadly revenge on a man that gave it a lighted cigarette. And believe in the PBS Civil War series a soldier is quoted saying about his first battle that he “had seen the elephant”. Cows can be plumb unreasonable, even when they are cow elephants.
Sadie, I am lucky, there is still some old time waterwheel mills in my area. The Hagood Mill on Hwy178 north of Pickens, SC has a demonstration of grinding meal, an old time blacksmith demonstration along with other old time demonstrations once a month. It has been a long time since I have been there but they even had a working moonshine still but we’re not making or selling moonshine.
I should have posted this in the comment section. I noticed I made a misstate in my first comment I said elephant instead of cow eating the cabbage.
Ron, I sorta laughed about the lighted cigarette but if the elephant killed the man it is not funny. Since this is a “family show” I will try to keep this clean. I was a bird hunter and remember some hunters that would try to “style up” their dog when they pointed by raising their tail. I read about one hunter doing this to his dog while holding a lighted cigarette in his hand, touching the dog’s rear end. From that time on the dog didn’t let nobody touch his tail!
I enjoyed these comments this morning. You always get my day off to a great start, and I truly appreciate the work do in preserving our southern appalachian heritage. Have you ever heard the story (I assume true) when they actually hung an elephant around Johnson City, TN in the early 1900’s?
Bob Creswell
Kingston, TN
Yes, I remember reading about it. I think the story I read was in one of the books Tipper has read in her videos.
I have heard that one along with others to describe how anything, particularly a problem was dealt with in a mater-of-fact or direct manner. My daddy was fond of saying once said problem/task was dealt with, “and that’s how the cow ate the corn”. Another friend of mine who had a saying for practically any and everything would sometimes say, “that’s what makes the mare trot” to describe the plain mechanics of a situation. If I ever asked my daddy how we were going to accomplish something that seemed impossible or undoable and he knew the said task could be done he would reply to my “how are we going to do it” by saying, “like the cat ate the grindstone, slow and easy”.
I better run for now, there may be turkey off hollering somewhere! LOL
God Bless and enjoy these next two days of sunshine. Rain is back in the forecast for us Sunday night.
Jeffery
My father used the expression “Tell them how the cow ate the cabbage” when a conversation was going to get really serious. I’ve never heard the elephant story, but it is funny.
I’ve not heard that expression before but it is a good one.
I can just imagine the dismay of the poor woman seeing a “cow” eating her cabbage.
Jerry Clower told the same story in the 1970’s only it happened in Mississippi and it was Aunt Pet that saw the elephant in her cabbage patch. I have never heard “that’s how the elephant ate the cabbage” as an expression for telling it like it is. I can very easily believe the elephants getting in the millpond, especially if the weather was hot. Hasn’t the circus stopped having elephants because of these animal rights groups complaining, I wonder why no one complained about the old farmers using horses or mules to work their farms.
Randy-thank you for sharing that. That might have been where the man in the paper heard the story 🙂