No, no, Dan, I wasn't funnin'! It simply occurred to me after I posted that you might not know that I was borrowing a phrase from "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Harriet Beecher Stowe.

Here's the reference, a bit of the initial interview between Topsy, the young slave girl, and the mistress to whom she's just been delivered:

  "Have you ever heard anything about God, Topsy?"

  The child looked bewildered, but grinned as usual.

  "Do you know who made you?"

  "Nobody, as I knows on," said the child, with a short laugh.

  The idea appeared to amuse her considerably; for her eyes twinkled, and she added,

  "I spect I grow'd. Don't think nobody never made me."


...so there you have it. This is also the origin of the phrase "growed like Topsy." Again, please rest assured that I was not making fun of you, Dan.

Sharon