The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #112155 Message #2372567
Posted By: PoppaGator
23-Jun-08 - 12:26 PM
Thread Name: Folklore: Expression - a peck of dirt
Subject: RE: BS: Expression - a peck of dirt
"Ozark saying: "I love you a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck."
To my knowledge, that phrase is a quote from the song frogprince quoted in its entirety, which I'm pretty sure came from a 1940s Broadway musical comedy ~ a far cry from the backwoods of the Ozark mountains.
Now, perhaps the librettist/lyricist didn't originate the phrase, but picked it up from someone who knew it from back home in Arkansas. On the other hand, it's not at all impossible that GUEST Tom Franke's Ozark "source" heard this song, very popular in its heyday, on the radio.
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"Pica" refers to the eating of any non-food substance, not only dirt. One of my sons earned the nickname "Pica Boy" as a toddler when he chewed on every piece of wooden furniture he could reach. (We learned the term from our pediatrician.)
We still have bookshelves with toothmarks on the lower shelves, those which were right at the height of his mouth while he was going through this stage.