It’s amusing
that the older we get, the more we start to sound like our parents. Expressions they used when we were little would
make us cringe at the time. As we get
older, we find ourselves using a lot of those expressions.
When my Mom
was cleaning the house, she’d say she gave it “a lick and a promise”. “A lick and a promise” means, as the American
Heritage Dictionary puts it, “a superficial effort made without care or enthusiasm.”
My Mom
always called her purse “a pocketbook”. I
always thought that sounded like a paperback novel. Now it could also mean an electronic reader.
My Dad used
to call pimples “hickies”. He’d say, “What
have you got there - a hickey?” Huh? Not likely, Dad.
It was
either my Dad or my Grandfather who used to say, “straighten up and fly right”. It means “to improve one's behavior or
attitude and perform better”.
My Dad used
to say, “gosh all fish hooks”, too.
Apparently that means, “Gosh all mighty” or “God almighty”. I did see reference to a 1938 Cream of Wheat
ad that used that expression as a header – http://www.rubylane.com/item/162799-ax201961/Magazine-Ad-Cream-Wheat-Gosh
I often
heard them say he/she “is as funny as a crutch” when they were talking about someone who
wasn’t being very funny.
I often
heard my Mom say “butter wouldn’t melt in his/her mouth”. It means “prim and proper, with a cool
demeanor”.
If you
wanted to do something a friend was doing, my Mom would say, “I suppose if
[insert friend’s name here] walked down the street naked, you’d want to, too”. I remember thinking, “why would I want to do
that?”
If my
parents got mad at each other, the worse thing they’d say would be, “oh, go
soak your head!” That expression is "old slang used to tell somebody they have no idea what they are talking about".
I also heard them say, "I wouldn't know him from Adam's off ox". That means "to have not the slightest information about the person indicated".
Leg cramps were always called "charley horses" at my house. This is a common name for a muscle spasm.
They also said, "my eyes feel like two burnt holes in a sheet" which meant your eyes were tired, sore and felt like they were burning.
My Dad used to say, "do you think the rain will hurt the rhubarb?" and also, "it's cold enough to freeze the hair off a brass monkey". The first one doesn't really mean anything. The second expression is self-explanatory.
My
Grandmother had her share of expressions as well. Most of them cannot be repeated
here – Gramma was a character. The
expressions were a little racy or vulgar.
She sure was funny, though. If someone
burped, she’d say, “better to bear the shame than the pain” or “better out than
in”. If we wanted things to eat that
weren’t necessarily good for us (brown sugar or pie dough scraps when she was
baking), she’d say “you’ll get worms”. I
wish I could repeat some of her better ones.
Families
sure are funny.
"Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family.
Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one."
- Jane Howard
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