Mocha With Linda hosts a weekly meme called Flashback Friday. She’ll post a question every Thursday, and then Friday we can link our answers up on her site.

The question for this week is:

What sort of sayings, colloquialisms, or proverbs did your family say when you were growing up? When were they used? What do you find yourself saying that you vowed you would never say? What do you say that drives your kids nuts? Is there a regional aspect to your speech? Do you have an accent and were you ever teased about it?

This is the kind of question I wish I’d had a week or so to think about. I know different phrases and sayings will keep coming to my mind for days to come.

My mom used to quote snatches of poems here and there. While pulling into the driveway she’d say, “Home again, home again, jiggety jig.” If it was really windy, she’d say, “The wind blew and the hair flew and you couldn’t see for a day or two.” I’ve never found out if that was from anything — just never thought to ask about it at the time and Google doesn’t show anything for it now. If she was complimenting someone, she might say, “You’re a better man than I am, Gunga Din.” Imagine my surprise to discover Gunga Din one day in English class!

She would also say what might sound to an outsider like horrible things when she was frustrated with us, but we knew she was just “venting” in hyperbole, and we’d just shake our heads and smile. It wasn’t in real anger and she never flew off the handle when saying these things, but she’d say things like “I’m going to knock you into next week” or “I’m going to break your neck 37 million pieces” (always some ridiculously high number.) Once when she said the latter I was just learning about bones in school and matter-of-factly answered, “Mom, there are only 206 bones in a whole body.” That didn’t go over very well at the moment, but it was something we all laughed about many times later.

Then there were all the usual momisms:

• Always wear clean underwear in case you have to go to the emergency room.
• You’re getting too big for your britches.
• Pretty is as pretty does (it took me a long time to figure that one out).
• If everyone else jumps off a bridge, would you do it, too?
• You’re face is going to freeze like that.
• Do you think money grows on trees?
• If I’ve told you once I’ve told you a thousand times . . .
• Close the door. Were you born in a barn?

Re that last one, in our early married days we knew a couple who lived in a barn that had been converted into an apartment, and I always thought it would be so neat if they had a child there who could then respond to that question all his life, “Yes, actually, I was!”

My dad also said some of those things, but the one I remember him saying most was, “How many times have I told you….” whatever it was. I remember at a very young age tearily trying to think how many times and come up with a literal number, because I thought that’s what he wanted. That incident caused me to refrain from asking that same question of my children, though it did come to mind. He would also say, “Stop crying or I’ll give you something to cry about.”

My grandfather had a ton of sayings, and I wish I could remember them. One series had to do with coffee: my mom would let us drink coffee when we were little, though it was a lot of milk and sugar with coffee added. He routinely made dire predictions that coffee would stunt our growth, or put hair on our chest, or turn different parts of our bodies black, always followed by that distinctive laugh of his. We were pretty sure he was kidding — but we did check ourselves out a time or two in private to make sure. 🙂

This isn’t something my parents ever said, but I was astounded over the years when someone at school would be having trouble getting along with someone and would be soothed by their parents and friends with the phrase, “They’re just jealous.” This was way before the self-esteem emphasis and really was rarely ever the case! I don’t know why that would be the assumption people would make instead of taking the opportunity to teach conflict resolution.

I asked my youngest if I had any regular sayings, and he said he couldn’t remember any of mine, but my husband would almost always say, when they wanted to buy something, “That’s a lot of money. Are you sure you really want to spend it that way?’ My oldest son has said that question rings in his ears even now when he is contemplating a purchase.

Although I lived in Southeast Texas until I was 22 and in South Carolina and Georgia the rest of my life, somehow I don’t have an accent. In college, people were surprised to learn I was from Texas and would ask where my accent was, and I always wanted to say, “Back home with my ten gallon hat and tumbleweed.” (By the way — this has more to do with stereotypes than colloquialisms, but when my husband first told his dad he was dating a girl from Texas, his dad asked, “Does her daddy own an oil well?” Nope — I’m afraid not!) One quiz I took a few years ago said I had a Midland accent, which they designated as being from “Pennsylvania, southern Ohio, southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri — I have never been to any of those places, but the quiz said that was also a way of saying I didn’t have an accent. My mom didn’t either, really, and she lived in TX all her life. My dad did, too, but he did have a bit of an accent.

But even without an accent, I consider myself a full-fledged Southerner, though there are some SC saying that make me cringe. One is “mash the button.” You don’t mash the button — you mash potatoes — you push or press the button! Another is “carry” as in “I carried Mama to the store” and “fixins” as in “fried chicken and all the fixins” or all the usual side dishes. I don’t know why those bug me, but they do. 🙂