THE DIRT ROAD WONDER: Southerners and Their Sayings

Southerners have always had a very colorful way of getting their point across.

We are beginning to lose some of this because people don’t talk to each other the way they once did - now they text or talk on their phones.

The retirement village that I live in does not allow phones in the dining room during meals.

I think this is good because people sit and talk with each other.

Most of my quotes are unknown to the average northern person and they find them amusing.

We were talking about having a difference of opinion and I said, “There are more ways to kill a cat than to choke him on butter.”

They asked me what that meant, and I told them I had no idea, but it was what my Grannie used to say.

Then, there was the curse you put on bullies when they were ganging up on you in school.

“If you don’t leave me alone, I am going to hit you so hard that all your grandchildren will be born naked.”

Children can be cruel when it comes to someone that looks different from them.

They would say “that face would stop a clock’’ or “she is so ugly that she could vacate a haunted house” which meant the ghosts would take one look at her and run.

Then there were insults to one’s intelligence - “It’s a good thing he doesn’t have a brain because he would take it out and play with it.”

Some were classed as being smart as a whip while others were said to be as dumb as a pile of rocks.

I understand the rocks…but how can an object like a whip be smart?

Some of our colorful language has a story behind them.

The saying “What in the Sam Hill” comes from a man that was a miner.

He had such a foul mouth that everyone knew you were cussing if you used his name instead of cuss words.

A “sweet talker” was someone that could tell you to go to hell and make it sound like you would enjoy the journey.

There were so many men that died shortly after they stopped working that people would say that he retired and then expired.

There were a couple of ways to describe a house that was too small for the family; one way was to say that you couldn’t ‘cuss a cat in the house’ without getting cat hair in your mouth.

Another was that you had to ‘go outside to change your mind’.

You learned to read the moods of the older people.

If your Mama was having a conniption, you laid low…but if she was having a hissy fit, you, your Daddy, and your dog headed for the woods and didn’t come home until after dark.

Daddy always said a difference of opinion was what made ugly women marry and poor land sell.

Daddy also said that he once knew a man so lazy that he was born tired and then had a relapse.

We sang “Ain’t no boggers out tonight, Grandma killed them all last night” and never knew that some people swore that they had seen a real bogger.

In later years, there would be a number of shows about BigFoot hunters, but it is so strange they never found one.

‘Till next time keep on the sunny side. Gwynn0720@Comcast.net

THE DIRT ROAD WONDER: Southerners and Their Sayings

Insights From The Garden: Making your lawn less-hospitable to critter visitors

Gadsden County students named to Tallahassee Community College’s fall Dean’s List

Gadsden County students named to Tallahassee Community College’s fall Dean’s List

Recommended

Padgett’s Jewelers nears 72 years with 96-year-old owner still at the helm

Community organizations, police unite against gun violence

Popular News

Early voting underway for Quincy District 1 special election

Quincy swears in Brian Alexander as new police chief

County officials weigh 10% budget cuts during workshop

Proposed US 90 trail study would connect Quincy and Chattahoochee

Gadsden County Extension Column

Newsletter

Category

Site Links

About Us

Welcome Back!

Create New Account!

Retrieve your password

Are you sure want to unlock this post?

Are you sure want to cancel subscription?

THE DIRT ROAD WONDER: Southerners and Their Sayings

Support local journalism. Subscribe to The Gadsden County Times.

Subscribe

Insights From The Garden: Making your lawn less-hospitable to critter visitors

Gadsden County students named to Tallahassee Community College’s fall Dean’s List

Recommended

Popular News

Newsletter

Category

Site Links

About Us

Welcome Back!

Create New Account!

Retrieve your password

Are you sure want to unlock this post?

Are you sure want to cancel subscription?