Around the Banks of the Suwannee

Published 7:00 am Friday, August 5, 2016

“Song, song of the South

Sweet potato pie and 

I’ll shut my mouth,

Gone, gone with the wind,

there ain’t nobody looking back again.”

(Lyrics from “Song of the South” as sung by Alabama, Songwriter Bob McDill)

 

I thought about the area in which we live in regards to sayings, regional color expressions, colloquialisms, if you want to use  a term that’s a little more up market.  Sometimes it can be said even when one has a great command of the Queen’s English that one can lapse into the local patois by using those local color expressions and, if one has lived in a place for a while, or their people have, you’d be surprised how many times you can yo-yo back and forth between colloquialisms mixed in liberally with beautifully spoken English and sometimes that which takes on its own beauty because of the color and fabric of local expressions.

For those who don’t quite understand that, let utilize one of the local color expressions in the Deep South that covers a multitude of sins and can be charmingly directed with positive approbations or tongue in cheek insult, and you know what it is: “bless your heart.”

Here are some other expressions that folks who are not from here, may or may not get, but if you are from here.. you will get it and them.

“Give Grandma some sugar” does not mean pass the sugar bowl, it means:  give me little kiss.

“Pot liquor” is the liquid that comes off cooked collards, mustard or turnip greens, really delicious with crumbled up cornbread.

And then there are those related to animals.

“He ran faster than a scalded dog.”

‘They really put on the dog.”  Meaning they had a party or an event that was done to the “nth” degree.

“A scalded dog will usually bark the loudest.” Meaning someone who is guilty may make the most noise.

“If you can’t run with the big dogs, stay on the porch.”

“He has enough money to burn a wet mule.”

“She’s prettier than a speckled pup.”

There are those that are related to smarts or the lack thereof.

“That gal has more degrees than a thermometer.”

“He’s smart as a cricket.”

“He’s as dumb as a box of rocks.”

“I don’t have much sense, but I have sense enough to know I don’t have much.”

I love the one related to one having a lofty opinion of oneself.

“Her nose is so high in the air if we have a hard rain storm, she’ll drown.”

“If you bought him for what he was worth and sold him for what he thought he was worth you’d make a devil of a profit.”

There are those related to the weather.

“We had a toad strangler out our way.” Meaning a heavy rain.

“It’s wet enough to bog a buzzard’s shadow.”

“It’s as dry as a tinder box.”

There are those related to one’s financial status.

“He’s as rich as cream.”

“They are as poor as Job’s turkey.”

“He’s as tight as Dick’s hatband.”

“He’s so stingy he squeaks.”

And then there are others. In our part of the world we know what the term “tump” means as in “tump over.” That is a combination of “Turn over and Dump” “Tump,”  as in “Did you see him tump over that cup of coffee.”

We also know that “tote” means to carry. “Help her tote that sack of groceries in the house.”

We know that when we are in an elevator, which may be rare in this part of the world, or we are working some electrical apparatus that “mash” means to  press. “Mash that button.”  If you are from here you get it.

We know that we are always “fixin” to do something. 

“I’m fixin to go to town.”  “I’m fixin to go fishing.”  We know that the term “fixin” means that we are about to do something.

We know that “Catty Corner” means not quite across the street, but just about across the street.  And we know that “Cattywampus” means well, “out of kilter.”

We know that “holler” means to make a loud noise. “You should have heard her holler when that hammer hit her on the hand.”

We know that “squall” is not a wind in this part of the world  but to hear a baby or someone cry really hard. “That is the squallinest young’un I’ve ever heard.”

We know that if someone is truly not well or has had a shock, some of the older people might say.

“She was as pale as death” or “She was as pale as Coty powder.”

We know that to “fall out” means to “faint.” “Poor thing she had such a shock that she fell out.”  That means she fainted.

We know that no matter the carbonated beverage in this area we might and often do refer to it as a “coke?” Would you go down to the store and buy me a cold coke. It could mean anything from a Dr. Pepper to a Mountain Dew, but it is a coke.

My  maternal  grandfather, the late Boman Taylor and my mother’s first cousin, the late Phil Townsend, Jr., of Live Oak would often utilize a saying about something bad that might have befallen someone and about the event they would say “There’ll be sad singing and slow walking.”

I loved that.

My paternal grandmother, the late Mary Joyner Bullard would often say about someone who had a terrible thirst: “My word they had a thirst that was hard to quench. They could drink Jordan dry and wink at Jerusalem.”

You have heard the expression of someone putting out a big meal.  Folks would say “They had enough food to feed Pharaoh’s army.”

On something or someone being lost folks would say…

“I was as lost as a peanut in a boxcar.” or  “She is a lost ball in high weeds.”

We also know that “bidness” is “bidness” and that is business. 

We know other terms too and some are not so complimentary.

“As blind as a bat.”

“Uglier than homemade sin.”

“So cross eyed that if he cried the tears would run down the back of his neck.”

“Teeth that are so bucked she could spear peanuts out of a long necked Pepsi bottle.”

“Fatter than a hog.”

“Deaf as a post.”

“All stove up” (meaning stiff).

And on we go. I could list a newspaper full of such expressions that add color to our spoken language here “Around the Banks of the Suwannee,” but I’m “fixin to bring this column to a close.

I hope  when you read some of these you smiled like “a mule eating briars” and if you are still confused and need an interpreter again, I  will express “bless your heart.” 

From the Eight Mile Still on the Woodpecker Route north of White Springs, wishing you a day filled with joy, peace, and, above all, lots of love and laughter.