Remember my post about the old saying Grab and Growl? If you missed it you can read it here.
A few weeks ago I received the following email about the post:
Thanks for your blog entry on “grab and growl” – something my wife is always saying. I’ve been teasing her about it for over thirty years because it made no sense to me. I accused her of making it up although she claims she picked it up from my mother (who was also known to twist a phrase). So, we were sitting around the table with my younger daughter discussing it when I decided to settle the matter via google. Oops!
Yep. My mother’s maternal lines run all the way back to western North Carolina through farm families who homesteaded their way across the country to the Pacific Northwest. So, here in Seattle, we have my wife (whose grandparents came from the Philippines a century ago to work in Hawaiian sugar cane fields) carrying on and transmitting our family’s little nugget of Appalachian heritage.
Only in America.
Best regards,
Paul Muto
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How cool is that? Very.
Tipper
We used the term “grab it and growl” in my family in southwestern Virginia, meaning pick whatever up and get moving–NOW. Its use usually elicited a smile.
It might be surprising how many Appalachian families migrated to to the Pacific Northwest. Most were following the timbering interests that had played out in the Eastern forests. Of course they carried their customs and colloquialisms with them.
The Pacific Northwest was a vast rugged mountainous land and would have seemed just like home to the Appalachian transplants.
Tipper,
I enjoyed that clip from Paul Muto.
I’m just glad you shared it with us. There are millions of stories
out there and a lot of ’em passed
through the Appalachians.
Hope Chitter and Chatter have a blast tonight at their concert.
Wish I could be there too, but
got something else to do…Ken
I am reminded of Lincoln’s “mystic cords of union”. We are in need these days for reminders of the things that unite us instead of the drumbeat of the voices of division. Mr. Muto’s little story is an illustration of how genealogy is also history and how a family tapestry is woven from many, many threads.
I have used “grab and growl” my whole life. I am from southwestern Virginia.
It’s amazing how interrelated humans are. I can’t remember hearing that phrase, but I plan to add it to my vocabulary. I think I will try it on my husband tonight when I call him for dinner. It will be fun!
Pretty amazing!
I see your blog like tendrils of a vine inching its way across our land. Mountain sayings do the same. Makes me smile and smile.
Tipper,
That is very interesting. I wonder how many sayings we have that come from the families that immigrated from the Philippines and Hawaii? There are many I am sure!
I could “grab and growl” some “kilt lettuce and onions” with a “bowl of soup beans” and a “pone of cornbread” for supper!
Thanks Tipper,
Your blog goes near and far, doesn’t it? and settles funny squabbles as well…
Now if we could get congress to “google” the Blind Pig for idea’s, this country might get something accomplished! LOL
Keep up the good work!
Yep, that’s pretty cool, Tip. We are all related in one way or another! I just love how the Blind Pig verifies that every now and then.