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BS: Did your mum say this to you.....
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Subject: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: TRUBRIT Date: 16 Apr 08 - 12:14 AM When I was younger, yeah, these many years ago, whenever I looked a mess (not infrequently) my mother would tell me that: A. I looked like the Wreck of the Hesperus or B. I looked like the Wild Woman from Borneo or C. I looked like I had been dragged through a hedge backwards....... What did your mum used to say to you, and who was the Wild Woman from Borneo anyway.....???? Can anyone help?????? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Bee Date: 16 Apr 08 - 12:45 AM My Mom did use the Wreck of the Hesperus line, but more often told me to tidy myself up, because I was "all ruppach". I'm pretty sure that's a Gaelic word, spelled as she said it (and so do I). My brother was a picky eater as a child. My aunt, who lived with us, and had a wicked sense of humour, would gaze intently at his plate, raise her eyes towards the ceiling, and intone "I wonderrr what the puir people are eatin' tonight!" Bothered brother no end until he was old enough to realize she was teasing. Irony: we were the poor people. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Slag Date: 16 Apr 08 - 12:47 AM Wild "Man" of Borneo. I think he was supposed to be a circus sideshow attraction back in the day. Wreck of the Hesperus from the poem=complete destruction. For us it was "dragged through a knot hole". At that point, I don't believe frontward or backward would make much difference. How about "Crying in a bucket"!? Why? And why does this phrase enjoy such circulation? "Oh brother!" Man, that one has been around a while. I wonder if Cain used to say it? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: CarolC Date: 16 Apr 08 - 01:22 AM "Something the cat dragged in" Which, now that I think about it, is a really horrible thing to say to someone. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: JennieG Date: 16 Apr 08 - 01:22 AM My mother used to tell me I looked like something the cat dragged in. Probably through a hedge, backwards - that wasn't said, but it was implied. Cheers JennieG |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Sandra in Sydney Date: 16 Apr 08 - 03:06 AM noisy as a pacapoo shop I thought this word came from India in the days of the Raj, but just found out it was a form of Chinese gambling. dad used to tell us we wouldnt get curly teeth unless we ate our crusts. sandra (who also looked like something the cat dragged it) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Georgiansilver Date: 16 Apr 08 - 03:48 AM My Mum used all those expressions but I guess my Dad was the one for using strange expressions most..........My Dad believed in time travel...as...if I had done something wrong...he believed he could 'knock me into the middle of next week'...........Oh and if I was crying....his favourite expression was...'Shut up or I'll give you something to cry for'.......Aren't parents wonderful? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Slag Date: 16 Apr 08 - 04:11 AM You too GS? I heard those all too often! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Bryn Pugh Date: 16 Apr 08 - 04:31 AM Yes, and I. Mama used to say of me when I looked a mess 'you're as rough as a split clog'. And when I was being naughty, I was 'like a bag of weasels'. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Wyrd Sister Date: 16 Apr 08 - 05:18 AM 'never in a month of Sundays' and 'face like a week of wet washdays' but not as far as I can remember to me specifically - I was another hedge candidate. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: GUEST,LTS pretending to work Date: 16 Apr 08 - 05:21 AM My father would say I was in a worse state than Russia... LTS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Dave Sutherland Date: 16 Apr 08 - 07:13 AM My Grandad would tell me that I looked like "one o'clock half struck" |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: GUEST,LTS pretending to work Date: 16 Apr 08 - 07:19 AM Ah yes, the 'something to cry for'... my parents used that on me until I learned to respond with 'but I already have something' and displayed the injured limb, spilt drink or broken toy. My father was alway threatening to 'take my belt off and you'll know what'll happen then?' The response 'Your trousers will fall down' was usually yelled from across the room and accompanied by the sound of running feet! LTS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: kendall Date: 16 Apr 08 - 07:43 AM My Mother was too much of a lady to say such things, but, some of the more common ones were, You look like you chased a fart through a keg of nails. " " " " were dipped in shit and shot for stinking. " " " " rode hard and put away wet. More recently, one of my nephews came in dressed as the young ones do these days, and I said to him "Oh, did the Clampetts have a yard sale"? I used to tease Rebecca about her garb... "You look like you dressed inside a Goodwill collection box in the dark." |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Sorcha Date: 16 Apr 08 - 08:15 AM Wild woman from Borneo, cat dragged in, something to cry about, month of Sundays, rode hard, all those. I was also told 'the starving children in India would love to have that', wild woman going to the out house (what's your hurry?)shut up and enjoy the wilderness, I'll talk to your brain through your butt, I'll kick your butt so hard you'll have to cough to fart. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Ruth Archer Date: 16 Apr 08 - 08:19 AM It's funny till someone loses an eye, you know. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Zen Date: 16 Apr 08 - 08:25 AM My mother used to say "Why are you making such a song and dance about ...(insert beef of the day)". Clearly a wise and early attempt to steer me away from the temptations and vicissitudes of folk music... Zen |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Bryn Pugh Date: 16 Apr 08 - 08:44 AM I was told that I was in a worse state than China. As regards my dress code, I got 'who's died and left you that [coat, trousers, tie, gansey, shoon, etc.] Oh, and the woman two doors down had a face like a yard of pump water. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: SINSULL Date: 16 Apr 08 - 08:56 AM "and if your friends jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge, would you do it too?" "...something the cat dragged OUT" "...hit by the Ugly Stick" The worst thing I ever heard a mother say to her child: "You can be replaced by a void." |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Sorcha Date: 16 Apr 08 - 09:00 AM Oh yes..the Ugly Tree...hit every branch on the way down! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Jeanie Date: 16 Apr 08 - 09:04 AM Said by my dad, when I was being fidgety: "What have you got - St.Vitus' Dance ?" Said by my dad, when I was happily lolling about: "Come on, come on, look lively ! What do you think this is, a rest camp ?" Said by both parents, when I was pulling faces: "Stop that, or you'll get struck like it." (optional extra: if the wind changes direction). "That woman has got a face like the back of a bus". "That woman has got hair like chippolata sausages". "He's a real micky dripping." "What a niminypiminy !" - jeanie |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Becca72 Date: 16 Apr 08 - 09:56 AM "You look like you dressed inside a Goodwill collection box in the dark." Yeah, I remember that one, Dad. Also "Earrings with a sweater???" said like he was Calvin Klein himself. My mother used to say "I'll knock you so far into next week your clothes will be out of style" and "come here so I can hit you" yeah, Ma, like I was EVER that stupid. My favorite comes from my grandmother, Charlotte. When ever any of us would think a bit too highly of ourselves she would say "Who do you think you are slattin' yourself around here, the Queen of Sheba?" |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Mrrzy Date: 16 Apr 08 - 09:58 AM The horrible part is hearing my parents' words, the ones I *swore* I would never say, coming out of my mouth towards my kids... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Bert Date: 16 Apr 08 - 10:19 AM The wild man of Borneo is an orangutan. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: topical tom Date: 16 Apr 08 - 10:31 AM As a young boy my mother used to cut my hair using scissors and (shudder) hand clippers. When I would cry (as was like every time) my mother would say "If you think this hurts, just wait till you go to the dentist." Those clippers pulled like hell. I believe I would still cry out today at the pain. When I first went to the dentist it was virtually painless, only aching as the novocaine wore off.Thank God parenting has evolved greatly since then! Let me hasten to say that in other ways my mother was loving and caring. I loved her and still miss her very much. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Uncle_DaveO Date: 16 Apr 08 - 10:55 AM My mother, say 65 to 70 years ago, used. . . "Close the door! Were you born in a barn?" "Close the door! We can't heat the whole outdoors!" And it was "Good Night Nurse!" when aggravated. When she was REALLY aggravated, it was more like "Good! Night! Nurse!" I never figured that one out. "For cryin' out loud!" And yes, The Wreck of the Hesperus was there too. And so was the dragged-in cat. And the month of Sundays. Dave Oesterreich |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Bryn Pugh Date: 16 Apr 08 - 11:23 AM Anyone bar me get 'the week of years' as well as 'the month of Sundays' ? Another one from my Puri Dai (Grandmama) was 'a face worse than Crippen's!' From Mama - 'your bedroom - it's like Muldoon's picnic'. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: BuckMulligan Date: 16 Apr 08 - 11:36 AM Often heard "Wreck of the Hesperus" and "cat dragged in" occasionally heard I looked like "the dog's dinner" - applied not to attire or dishevelment, more to looking punky-under-the-weather. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: kendall Date: 16 Apr 08 - 12:38 PM ...she has more chins than a Chinese phone book. Face like a dollars worth of salt pork. A face that would stop an 8 day clock " " " " turn a funeral procession up an alley. She's so ugly the tide won't take her out. He was so fat you would have to take a lunch to walk around him. She was so ugly she had to sneak up on the sink to get a drink. He is so lazy he gets up at 4 am so he'll have a longer day to loaf. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Janie Date: 16 Apr 08 - 01:40 PM In our utility bill conscious home, My dad, especially was prone to use the "...born in a barn" saying, as well as "The light switch works both ways." When we were fidgety, Mom would say, "What's wrong with you girl, you got a worm caught sideways?" Not from my parents, thankfully, but something my aunt would often yell at her kids "If you don't stop that right now I'm going to bust you right in the snot locker!" |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Becca72 Date: 16 Apr 08 - 01:48 PM From Uncle Carlton: "she was so fat I had to go back twice to hug all of her" "she was so fat she uses Oil of Ole in 40-weight" |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Acorn4 Date: 16 Apr 08 - 01:56 PM Remember to change your underpants, In case you have an accident, And the people in the ambulance, What would they think of me? And you won't get through those pearly gates, With your crusties in a two and eight, So always put on a clean pair every day! First four lines mum's, Last four mine just to round it off! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: kendall Date: 16 Apr 08 - 04:32 PM "Just who do you think you are"? (Like you gotta be sombody to have a problem)! Mothers can't count. They say, "How many times have I told you..." (Bill Cosby) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Georgiansilver Date: 16 Apr 08 - 04:36 PM I've told you a million times...stop exaggerating!! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Herga Kitty Date: 16 Apr 08 - 04:57 PM Through a hedge backwards... but if we'd made an effort to look smart, my aunt would say, "My, aren't we posh"! Kitty |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Acorn4 Date: 16 Apr 08 - 05:33 PM Oh well, I suppose I'll have to suffer in silence as usual! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Don(Wyziwyg)T Date: 16 Apr 08 - 06:15 PM "You're always running around,...like a flea in a fit." "Slow down or you'll meet youself coming back".........WHAT? "If you go playing on that bombsite and you fall and break your leg, JUST DON'T COME RUNNING TO ME!" Plus most, if not ALL, of the above |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: kendall Date: 16 Apr 08 - 07:41 PM You're thrashing around like a fart in a mitten. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Sorcha Date: 16 Apr 08 - 08:40 PM How about 'No blood, no owie'. It's a long ways from your heart. Nobody ever died from that (whatever 'that' currently is/was) So, your friends'mother allows that? Am I your friends Mother? You want to do WHAT???? You DO have 'stupid' written on your forehead! Wanna come home on the end of a razor strop? Yer not too old to get yer butt beat. Your boyfriend wants to do WHAT??? How long does he expect to live? You act like your momma did raise dummies! He wants to take you WHERE??? for HOW long???? And, honestly, my All Time Favorite from my dad: Go wash your face. My 2nd All Time Favorite from Dad: Tell him just don't try to come in quietly. (Kendall probably knows what this means) Reference patchouli oil....you smell like a wet dog. (I never thought patchouli smelled like a wet dog, do you?) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: TRUBRIT Date: 16 Apr 08 - 10:24 PM Dressed like a dog's dinner was a (sort of) complimemnt my mum used -- kind of meant looking snazzy but overdone. Goodness t- this thread has raised some memories...... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Lonesome EJ Date: 16 Apr 08 - 11:21 PM Jeanie. My Mom also used the "St Vitus Dance" comment when I wouldn't sit still. What's up with that? Nobody has had the St Vitus Dance since the Middle Ages have they? Or was there an outbreak in the late 1930s or something? A friend's Father made this comment to me as I stood in their den : "Ernie, does your Dad work in a glass factory?" After a puzzled moment I said no, and he said "well, I can't see through you, so can you move out from in front of the TV." This had me wondering for quite a while about how my Dad's employment might affect my opacity. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: TRUBRIT Date: 17 Apr 08 - 12:07 AM I too had the St. Vitus Dance one -- and the 'i'll give you something to cry about....' and the 'i'll give you the back of my hand, girl....'... I also remember very often ' You are not going out in public wearing that are you....? - or words to that effect. Usually spoken in horror in response to a mini skirt -- I used to love wearing those things!!! It is really interesting to read this thread and remember some of the things that were said to us -- some humorous and silly and some downright unkind. I can't imagine people still say things like -- i'll give you something to cry about.......... -- or perhaps I am being naieve and they still do..... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Seamus Kennedy Date: 17 Apr 08 - 01:23 AM Re: obscuring someone's view - "You're a pain in the neck, not a pane of glass. Move!" Seamus |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: JohnInKansas Date: 17 Apr 08 - 01:55 AM My father was alway threatening to 'take my belt off and you'll know what'll happen then?' NEVER got threatened with "the belt." Daddy was an off-and-on barber and had a BIG razor strop. [... which was never used in that way except to demonstrate how loud a noise it could make ...] [[I have a better one now than he had then, but no little kids around to threaten with it.]] John |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Bryn Pugh Date: 17 Apr 08 - 07:45 AM From standing in front of the dinlo's dikking-glass (TV) - You'd make a better door than a window. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: topical tom Date: 17 Apr 08 - 10:23 AM "If you see too many naked women you'll go blind".I do notice that my eyesight is failing. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Ruth Archer Date: 17 Apr 08 - 10:39 AM From Nanny Crump: She's not backward in coming forward. Ooooh - hark at you! (about small children who seem very clever): She's been here before. You don't get owt for nowt. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Lonesome EJ Date: 17 Apr 08 - 03:08 PM For the curious, here is the incredible story of the Dancing Plague that rampaged over Europe for two hundred years, also known as the St John's or the St Vitus Dance. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: dulcimer42 Date: 17 Apr 08 - 09:44 PM Her phrase for "Oh, my G" was "Judas Priest!" Who can tell me where that phrase came from!! ?? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: dulcimer42 Date: 17 Apr 08 - 09:45 PM Someone who thought they were better than the rest of us, Mom would call them "hoity-toity". Mom had some weird words! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: topical tom Date: 18 Apr 08 - 03:29 PM When referring to someone whom she believed was superficially smooth-talking and putting on airs, she would say about her "Butter wouldn't melt in her mouth!" |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Uncle_DaveO Date: 18 Apr 08 - 07:58 PM Up above, I cited a few of my mother's habitual sayings from the late 30s and early 40s. She said "Judas Priest!", too, as mentioned by someone above. If I took too much food and couldn't eat it all, or asked for more than her experience told her I could eat, it was "Your eyes are bigger than your stomach!" Someone in the family (not my mother), when disappointed or aggravated, would say, "Oh, for cryin' in the beer!" My cousin Joyce, 5 years older than I, raised just downstairs from me in my grandparents' house, who was such close family that she might have been my sister, had her own namby-pamby version of that last one: "Oh, for cryin' in the beverage!" Dave Oesterreich |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Big Al Whittle Date: 18 Apr 08 - 10:26 PM (first girlfriend) I saw her giving you the glad eye........ (first beard) the things you see when you haven't got a gun..... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Gurney Date: 18 Apr 08 - 11:20 PM St Vitus dance is now called Sydenham's Chorea, and is characterised by jerky uncontrolled movements. A childrens disease. Lots of references by Google. Yes, my parents used that. 'You look like you found a tanner and lost a bob!" "You look like a week of wet week-ends." 'Go and tell somebody who's interested." "You'll do." Never said WHAT I'd do. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Lonesome EJ Date: 18 Apr 08 - 11:35 PM "Eat your dinner. Children are starving in Europe!" This went on well into the early 60s. From my Dad. "Why don't you eat the heel of the bread? My brothers and I used to fight over it! It's the best part." Well help yourself, then. When a well-known celebrity's death was announced, Mom would always say in a put-on hillbilly accent "people are a-dyin' what never died before!" |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Deckman Date: 19 Apr 08 - 12:18 AM My mom was the mean (drunk and stoned) one. She commonly used expressions like: "I'll hit you 17 ways come Sunday". Another favorite was: "Don't look at me in that tone of voice!" My father always looked for the fun things: His native language was Finnish, but I still use an American expression today: "This is more fun than WHEELS!" Bob(deckman)Nelson |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Dave Hanson Date: 19 Apr 08 - 07:55 AM Don't do that, you'll go blind, can I do it half as much and wear glasses ? eric |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Dave the Gnome Date: 19 Apr 08 - 10:57 AM Exclamation of disbelief or shock - "Oh my giddy aunt" Who on earth was this giddy aunt? "Sweet Fanny Adams", as in "It's worth sweet Fanny Adams" I only figured out years later what the 'FA' of Fanny Adams should have been. Still not sure if Mum realises:-) My Grandad had many but one I remember, when I turned out one day with hair parted in the middle, 60's 'mod' style. "Thi favvors a Staffudshur mon!' Translation - You favour (look like) a man from Staffordshire. Insult stemming from the days when Staffordshire miners were 'imported' to break a local strike. Funny thing is - Grandads family were from 'Staffudshur' :-) Cheers Dave |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Alice Date: 19 Apr 08 - 12:06 PM "like you were dragged through a knothole" "something the cat dragged in" |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Dave the Gnome Date: 19 Apr 08 - 12:22 PM Oh - and just remembered 'You never know where it's been'. In relation to something you have just brought in off the street. Subject of a very good song by Mike Canavan with the chorus - "Don't bring that in 'ere, lad The house as just been cleaned Take it back where it come from You never know where it's been." My Mum used to add, particularly if the item in question was particularly unclean "We'll all get cholera morbus". Only just found out that, according to Wikipedia, the term cholera morbus was used in the 19th and early 20th centuries to describe both non-epidemic cholera and other gastrointestinal diseases. You learn something new every day:-) Cheers Dave |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Neil D Date: 19 Apr 08 - 02:44 PM From Dad: He's big enough to eat corn fodder. Like a fart in a skillet. You'd Make a better door than a window. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Georgiansilver Date: 19 Apr 08 - 02:54 PM Too much of that (playing with yourself...masturbating) and you will go blind....my Mum was right....I am now beginning to lose my sight at 60yrs of age!!!! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: TRUBRIT Date: 19 Apr 08 - 06:42 PM What's interesting to me is how many of us -- whether US based or not -- had the same things said to us...........and what is equally interesting is how cruel some of the statements were -- if you said half as much to a child today you would be arrested. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: GUEST,Ed T Date: 19 Apr 08 - 07:01 PM Curiosity killed the cat But, satisfaction brought him back. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Don Firth Date: 19 Apr 08 - 07:08 PM Dad (whenever he fixed breakfast and burnt the toast, which was usually): "Go ahead and eat it. It'll put hair on your chest." Or anything I was a little suspicious of: "It's good for what ails you." Actually, he wasn't that bad a cook. But fortunately, Mom did most of the cooking. Mom: "You're not going out looking like that, are you!??" Applied to both my sisters and me. Don Firth |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Don Firth Date: 19 Apr 08 - 07:11 PM Either of my parents when one of us kids spent a long time in the bathroom: "Did you die in there?" Don Firth |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: TRUBRIT Date: 19 Apr 08 - 09:54 PM I didn't know boys had the classic line - you are not going out looking like that, are you -- thrown at them -- thought it was just we girls...... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Don Firth Date: 19 Apr 08 - 09:57 PM Oh, yeah. I don't know if it happens much any more, though. Don Firth |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Slag Date: 20 Apr 08 - 12:53 AM I had a colorful uncle. He is responsible for my occasional "Judas Priest!" outbursts. One of his phrases (usually about a guy with a beard [I wear a beard now]) "He looks like the south end of a north-bound horse!" I always wished my folks had adopted a Korean because that was always who wanted the food which I didn't! "Close the door! You're letting our flies out!" "Close the door! You're letting the 'cold' out!" once we got air conditioning. Or, "What are you trying to do? Heat the great outdoors?" in Winter. Fidgety? "You got worms?" "Lord, what did I do to deserve this?" or "...you?" "I'm gonna wear you out." which preceded a whipping! "If 'ugly' was pennies, s/he'd be rich!" "Get out from under my feet." or "Come on or I'm going to leave you." "Pick up your feet" I must have been shuffling. "If you don't straighten up, I'm gonna straighten you out!" "They'll stick" That's been adequately covered. "You'd lose your head if it weren't attached." I had a friend who sometimes used the expression "He hasn't got the brains God gave a crowbar." Thanks Jane, I use that myself on occasion. Some of the best advice my Dad gave me was short and pithy, "Learn to think." I heard that a lot and finally did and it saved me from a world of hurt. "Your other 'left', dummy." Sgt. Martin to anyone who was out of step. "She'd give 'Frankenstein' (-'s monster) nightmares." Don't recall who gave me that one but it works on occasion. "Are you just naturally stupid or do you work at it?" from the ozone, I guess. "You never hear me talk that way." only I DID hear him talk that way on rare occasion and usually directed at me. Oh, how I wanted to answer that but I knew what the consequences would be. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Lonesome EJ Date: 20 Apr 08 - 01:01 AM According to my Mom, going out in the winter without a hat would cause me to get the "epizootic". This was even worse than the "crud". |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: SINSULL Date: 20 Apr 08 - 10:59 AM From Nana Sullivan: Pity the poor pelican. His beak can hold more than his belly can (on taking more food than you could eat) And The crow of a hen and the whistle of a woman wakes the devil from his lair. (My brothers were forbidden to teach me to whistle and to this day, I don't) If you make that face and someone hits you on the back you'll be stuck that way. Someone just walked on your grave. (If you got a shiver up your spine) If you hit your mother, when they bury you, that hand will rise out of the grave. (I often tell this to Freddie the cat who will end up on his back with all four paws in the air.) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Don Firth Date: 20 Apr 08 - 01:11 PM "If you don't get a haircut pretty soon, we're going to have to get you a dog license." Don Firth |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Ruth Archer Date: 20 Apr 08 - 03:08 PM From the Irish side of the family: For an ugly person, or somebody with a sour, angry expression: "She's got a face like a plateful of mortal sins." A quiet chap who used to visit when I was a kid, who never smoked or drank or swore, was known behind his back as "The Creeping Jesus". |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Uncle_DaveO Date: 20 Apr 08 - 06:32 PM I don't think anyone already mentioned this one above: If a kid was "looking all over" for something that had (he thought) disappeared, but that was right there in plain sight, my mother would either point it out or hand it to him, and say, "If it had been a snake, it'd have bit you!" Or maybe she'd say, "Open your big blue eyes!" Or just "Open your big blues!" (Despite the fact that all of us kids had brown eyes.) Dave Oesterreich |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Don(Wyziwyg)T Date: 20 Apr 08 - 07:31 PM Said of the local woman who was always showing off and trying to appear well off. "That one.....She's all fur coat and no knickers" "What a misery, wandering about with a face like a slapped arse" One I never fathomed out...about a local girl who had a reputation for being easy. "Oh her, she's no better than she should be".............PARDON? Don T. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: TRUBRIT Date: 20 Apr 08 - 09:32 PM Interesting -- I always heard (and still say) a goose walked over your grave when I shiver. And for a mouthy man always boasting of his conquests but perhaps not actually having any we used to say....;'he's all mouth and no trousers.......' We were told to .....'use the eyes God gave you....'(no color specified) and for taking too much food,.........'your eyes are bigger than your stomach.....' |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: JennieG Date: 21 Apr 08 - 01:38 AM TRUBRIT, many of those expressions were ALSO used in Oz in the 50s-60s when I was growing up....not just in the UK and US. I suppose having a go at one's kids transcends all borders...... I also used to get "I'll give you something to cry for" - she would too, my mother was very quick with her fists where I was concerned. Now it would be called psychological and physical abuse. It probably was. Cheers JennieG who has always tried to be kinder to her own kids |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Georgiansilver Date: 21 Apr 08 - 02:14 AM For the pulling funny faces one....my mum used to say "If the wind changes, you'll stay like that" If we clomped around the house.."You've got your iron boots on again" If we were being 'naughty'..and it was one I really hated... "The bogey man will get you"!!!!! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Slag Date: 21 Apr 08 - 05:40 AM You know, some wit once chimed (I think it may have been Mark Twain) "The American and the English are a people separated by a common language!" I'd have to disagree after reading this thoroughly enjoyable thread. Those phrases and idioms seem to be common the world over and I imagine there is a perpetual symphony being continuously spoken around the clock in the several billion English speaking people of these everyday phrases. I wonder how many of them translate into other languages, verbatim? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Georgiansilver Date: 21 Apr 08 - 06:39 AM Tu resemble comme le Wreck du Hesperus. Pas dans une mois de Dimanches. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Mr Happy Date: 21 Apr 08 - 10:08 AM Some of Mum's gems: "have you seen the back of your neck?" "have you seen the inside of your ears?" ..........how? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Mr Happy Date: 21 Apr 08 - 10:15 AM http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wreck_of_the_Hesperus |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Georgiansilver Date: 21 Apr 08 - 10:55 AM Yes Mr Happy I remember the 'ears' one..."You could grow potatoes in them"! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: paula t Date: 21 Apr 08 - 04:58 PM How about... "I'm standing here like cheese at fourpence!"(When being kept waiting.) "If the wind changes, you'll stay like that!"( If I was pulling a face.) "What a kind hearted skinny beggar!"(if someone offered as little as they could- e.g the smallest piece of chocolate they could.) "Your eyes were bigger than your belly." (If you took more than you could eat.) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: folk1e Date: 21 Apr 08 - 05:08 PM "There's a tide mark round your neck!" .... not washed my face and neck properly. "You look like you've found a Tanner and lost a sixpence" .... Tanner and Sixpence are the same amount of money! "Do you want a clout?" ...... not usually (clout = hit or slap) "This is going to hurt me more than you" ....... liar! "Your eyes are bigger than your belly" ..... Too much food on plate "Put wood in th'ole" .....close the door "Don't try to kid them as as kidded thousands" ..... We used this on our daughter (who apparently never understood it) 10 years later she phoned us up to tell us that she had started to use it on her daughter after hearing some of the excuses she used to use coming out of her daughters mouth! Finally realization struck home! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Don Firth Date: 21 Apr 08 - 05:11 PM To a young 'un wearing a severe pout: "A little bird is going to come along and perch on that lip." Don Firth |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: GUEST,melinda Date: 21 Apr 08 - 05:17 PM My Mother (when I'm looking for something in plain sight): "If it was a bear, it would've bit you!" Finally one day I said "If it was a bear, it'd be a lot bigger!" and: "If you go outside with wet hair, you'll get polio like Franklin Roosevelt!" until one day I said "Yeah. And he never amounted to anything after that, did he?" also: "If you fall out of that tree and break your leg, don't come running to me!" |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Lonesome EJ Date: 21 Apr 08 - 05:33 PM Driving along sticking my arm out the rear window of our car, and Mom says "Stop! That's a good way to lose an arm!" Oh? And tell me what are some bad ways? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Georgiansilver Date: 21 Apr 08 - 05:51 PM I also seem to remember my mum telling me when I was doing something wrong that it was a good way to get myself into trouble...seems so silly now....getting into trouble in a 'good' way???? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: GUEST,Chief Chaos Date: 21 Apr 08 - 06:26 PM Some that I haven't heard from you lot My father: Turn off the waterworks! (self explanatory)& "so help me I'll turn this car around!" (again self explanatory and also quite funny especially when he said it at the end of a twelve hour trip when we were pulling into our Grandmother's driveway!) We knew we were really in trouble when our mother yelled at us and used our full name tacking on "Patrick Alloiscious"! at the end. I never stopped to wonder who he was or just what he did to deserve such infamy until now. A friend of mine in Louisiana said about my son one day: "He's got an alligator mouth and a hummingbird ass!" Translation: He's all talk and can't back it up. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: TRUBRIT Date: 21 Apr 08 - 11:50 PM Jennie G -- I guess I would have expected these expressions in Oz given the emmigration from UK to Oz--what is really surprisng me is the # of posts from folks in the US quoting those self same expressions.... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Slag Date: 21 Apr 08 - 11:51 PM Yes Don F, "Don't trip over that lip!" |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Slag Date: 22 Apr 08 - 12:06 AM Concerning friends of shady character: "A person is known by the company he keeps." and more prosaic: "If you lay down with dogs, you'll get up with fleas." |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Rowan Date: 22 Apr 08 - 01:15 AM To a young 'un wearing a severe pout: "A little bird is going to come along and perch on that lip." Around our house it was "You've got a lip that'd trip a train!" And many of the ones cited above, although the 'tanner and sixpence' version with us (when wearing a dismal expression was "You look like you've lost ten bob and found sixpence." When I wasn't being as quick as she wanted my mother would say I was "as slow as a wet week!" dad used to tell us we wouldnt get curly teeth unless we ate our crusts. I was routinely told to eat my crusts so I'd get curly hair and/or strong teeth; for years now I've routinely told my kids they must eat their crusts so they'll get strong hair and curly teeth. They ignore this, of course. Other ones my mother said and not yet mentioned were; "This room is a pigsty!" when my bedroom wasn't as tidy as she wanted (this, of course, was my ploy to be able to disguise various things I didn't want her to discover) and "You treat this place as a hotel!" when I was late getting back from studying, working, playing sport etc. It was the only one said to wound and did so. Cheers, Rowan |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: JennieG Date: 22 Apr 08 - 03:14 AM Guest Chief Chaos, I always I was in for it when my mother called me "my girl"......as in "now see here my girl"..... I was never called by my full name (Jennifer Grace) ever, unless it was a tease - "Jennifer Grace wash your dirty face" - that sort of stuff. Cheers JennieG |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Lin in Kansas Date: 22 Apr 08 - 05:06 AM When looking particularly untidy: "look like you been drug over 40 miles of bad road...face down." Mom was the disciplinarian in our household; but dad was the one you didn't want to have "talk" to you if you'd done something bad. I think between the two of them, they used every single one of the things listed above. With us, it was "if you don't quit makin' that face, it's gonna freeze that way." When sad, "you look like you just lost your best friend." Lin |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Georgiansilver Date: 22 Apr 08 - 06:21 AM I've just remembered an expression my mum used quite often when expressing choices.... "There's more than one way to skin a cat"!!! Apart from the far East...is cat skinning common? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Bryn Pugh Date: 22 Apr 08 - 07:03 AM Not so much my Mam, but when you'd get a dirty look from someone, the comment'd be 'He looked at me as if I'd dropped a bad fart'. (Sorry for the slight thread drift) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Becca72 Date: 22 Apr 08 - 09:48 AM EJ, My great aunt, Arlene used to tell us not to hang any body parts out of the moving car but her excuse was that a "big truck would come by and rip it off". For YEARS I thought that's what happened to all those odd shoes and gloves on the side of the road. Scared the shit outta me the day I saw somebody's hat in the ditch! :-) Of course I never could figure out how the 'big truck' was going to pass us on the right (US) and take my arm/leg off... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: GUEST,Chief Chaos Date: 22 Apr 08 - 05:44 PM Just thinking about the expression "What the cat dragged in" We must have had strange cats. They never brought in anything that was bedraggled or mangled which is what I believe the saying actually is supposed to mean. They only brought in the nicest freshly killed mice, moles, voles and occasional rabbit. Sorry for the thread drift... Anyone know who Patrick Alloiscious was? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Slag Date: 22 Apr 08 - 06:13 PM The point about the cat is that whatever it drug in was DEAD! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Rowan Date: 22 Apr 08 - 06:21 PM Patrick Alloiscious is probably Patrick Aloysius, who was possibly, and stereotypically, the butt of the original Irish "joke" slanders. Cheers, Rowan |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: GUEST,Chief Chaos Date: 22 Apr 08 - 07:16 PM Thanks Rowan, Nothing came up on Google under that, but who can tell what the spelling ought to be. When there was a ruccus and my Grandmother didn't know who was involved, she'd start with her first born boy's name and work her way down to the youngest (only the boys of course!) and end with Damnit! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: TRUBRIT Date: 22 Apr 08 - 11:02 PM georgiansilver -- my daughter is a vet tech -- one of her text books when she took the course started out .......'contrary to popular opinion, there really IS only ONE way to skin a cat..........!' |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Georgiansilver Date: 23 Apr 08 - 03:48 AM Thanks for that LOL. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: TRUBRIT Date: 24 Apr 08 - 12:34 AM I giggled too!!!!! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Acorn4 Date: 24 Apr 08 - 07:37 AM When are you going to get a PROPER job? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: TRUBRIT Date: 24 Apr 08 - 10:33 PM Ah yes -- forgot that one!! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Wyrd Sister Date: 25 Apr 08 - 02:31 PM From an aunt, whenever anything was troubling - 'You'll die after it!' Took me ages to work out I hadn't died before it! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Don Firth Date: 25 Apr 08 - 02:43 PM Just thought I'd bung this in here. Jean Redpath, who has had a singing career that's lasted at least forty years, was once asked after a concert of folk songs and ballads, "You have such a lovely voice. Have you ever thought of doing anything with it?" Don Firth |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: TRUBRIT Date: 25 Apr 08 - 09:42 PM No - that couldn't be....... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Alice Date: 25 Apr 08 - 10:38 PM Don, my voice teacher, who has performed in opera companies all over the world, once had a local hick say to her after a small concert, "You have such a beautiful voice. Have you ever thought of taking lessons?" |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Eye Lander Date: 26 Apr 08 - 07:02 AM My mum used most of the above regularly! But when I was naughty (also a regular occurance!) she'd say 'Get out of my sight before I do something I shall be sorry for' I was usually hiding behind the door. Jillie |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Flash Company Date: 26 Apr 08 - 07:34 AM Haven't had time to read them all, but someone referred to 'Sweet Fanny Adams' back there. There was a murder victim named Fanny Adams, and I think the body was either never found or found dissected. WW1 soldiers used to refer to any unrecognisable dish served up to them as 'Sweet Fanny Adams'. We had 'If you don't get a haircut soon we'll have to buy a violin!' And one that came to minnd on seeing one of Tony Blair's sons with an excuse fo a moustache, 'Never cultivate on your lip that which grows wild round your bum!' FC |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: TRUBRIT Date: 26 Apr 08 - 09:38 AM Flash company -- now that mustache one I have never heard before........love it.....my mum definitely used to say the 'get out of my sight before I do something I regret....' and of course -- the full name syndrome when she was really p.o'd --- DEBORAH JEAN FIRTH -- COME HERE RIGHT NOW. And of course there was wait til your father gets home..... When I have time I am going to do some digging on Sweet Fanny Adams -- I always understood it to bw 'Sweet Fuck All' and have never heard of a person or that story -- very interesting - thanks....... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Dave'sWife Date: 26 Apr 08 - 01:35 PM Click here for info on St. John's Dance: Dancing Mania article on Wikipedia Most interesting is this bit of info: >> During the initial outbreaks of the mania, religious ceremonies were held in an attempt to exorcise the demons thought to be causing the mania. People commonly prayed to St. Vitus for aid, and he soon became the patron saint of the dancers. The phrase "St. Vitus' Dance", however, is in fact a name given to a syndrome known as Sydenham's chorea, which is totally unrelated to manic dancing.<< The craziest stuff told to me were by my Irish grandparents and Great Aunt (Grandma's sister) who used to scare me witless with threats of abduction by Sidhe if I dared walk alone after dark without a male relative. Grandma used to tisk tisk my habit of going to Saturday Evening Mass as a teen and admonish me to wait for my Uncle Brian to come and get me to walk me the six blocks back to her house. I used to think to myself but never say 'Oh yeah Grandma, the Fairy folk are just lying in wait on the corner of Whitney Avenue waiting for the sun to slip beneath the horizon so they can snatch poor little me off the corner." Now, you'd be forgiven for thinking this was the 1920's or 30's but it was 1977. I suppose she trotted that old gem out because of the stoop shootings* that were giving mothers and grandmothers white hair at the time.. Still, wouldn't that have made me safer on the streets? I dunno. * Son of Sam |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Bonzo3legs Date: 26 Apr 08 - 02:40 PM My Mum said "I wish you would keep away from girls who live on that Council Estate" - and she was right! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: TRUBRIT Date: 26 Apr 08 - 09:43 PM Council Estate - that brings back memories..... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Slag Date: 27 Apr 08 - 04:26 AM "What's the matter? You got the collywobbles?" Much later I discovered that "collywobbles" is a real word for diarrhea and associated symptoms. Epizootis and all it's variants are from epizoetic disease, i.e. disease that is transmitted from an animal to a human. "You look like what the little boy shot at." "Here's your hat; what's your hurry?" and "Why don't you come back when you can't stay so long?" |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Acorn4 Date: 27 Apr 08 - 04:38 AM "Ants in your pants" was the fifties version of hyperactivity or ADD, I'd guess. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Acorn4 Date: 27 Apr 08 - 01:03 PM You know what Thought did? Messed his pants and thought he was on the toilet! There are probably regional variations of this one ! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Acorn4 Date: 28 Apr 08 - 04:25 AM We had our firts thunderstorm of the year yesterday and I was reminded of:- "It's looking really black over Will's mothers!" Not sure who Will was? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: paula t Date: 28 Apr 08 - 05:38 PM Just remembered being told to calm down when I as rushing about. Mum would say" Ye Gods! You're like a bee in a bottle!" |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Don(Wyziwyg)T Date: 28 Apr 08 - 05:56 PM You reminded me Paula. My mums one was "Slow down, you're like a flea in a fit" also "Slow down or you'll run into yourself coming back" Don T. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Uncle_DaveO Date: 28 Apr 08 - 07:23 PM My mother habitually used a phrase which I don't think anyone else here has ever heard uttered by their mums, because she picked it up from a chance comment by some little girl she once knew. When she'd eaten (or imbibed) something that really was refreshing, it was: "That hits me with a spot!" I'm not sure whether you'd call that a mondegreen, or a malaprop! Dave Oesterreich |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: TRUBRIT Date: 28 Apr 08 - 10:43 PM Well - Brits say -- that hits the spot................could it be a variation on the theme? IE when you are dying of thirst and you take your first sip of gin and Tonic of the day -- that hits the spot...... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Dave'sWife Date: 29 Apr 08 - 09:34 AM TruBrit, I think Dave knows that and so did his Mum - she was merely repeating something another child said that she found amusing in that the child got it backwards. David mamet includes a number of lines like that in his scripts and plays, for example in The Spanish Prisoner, one of his very sharp witted female characters ( played by his now wife) says "It just shows to go ya" rather than "Goes to show ya" and it's meant to be ever so cleverly amusing. In Dave Oesterreich's Mum;s case, I imagine she thought the mix up was not oh so clever but oh so cute and endearing which is why she still said it. When I was a child, a younger playmate who hadn't quite mastered speech yet use to say "I'm saucy" for "I'm sorry" and it was so adorable that even to this day many of the kids who grew up with him will still say it to others from the neighborhood as an eanderment when they are apologizing for some little thing or other such as interupting you or bumping into you, that kind of thing. Another one from my childhood was that I grew up with a little girl who had Downs - same age as me in fact. She used to come up with some of the best descriptive expressions for a child! Our favorite that the same bunch of us as above use is for someone being gluttonous or refusing to share - she'd call them a Hogamapig - pronounced "Hog-a-ma-Pig" . Another item like that is one kids in my highschool picked up from a teacher who was a "colorful" personality but universally loathed by the students because he was a bully. He used to say "bull-ka-twang" for bullsh*t. Kids took the word from him and little else since he was a lousy teacher and an even lousier human being. It figures he was the football coach, huh? Well, at least he passed on one memorbale thing. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Uncle_DaveO Date: 29 Apr 08 - 11:05 AM Dave's Wife, you understood me perfectly. Dave Oesterreich |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: GUEST,Chief Chaos Date: 29 Apr 08 - 06:23 PM Well Uncle DaveO, it just shows to go you! ;.) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Georgiansilver Date: 29 Apr 08 - 06:26 PM Goodnight, Mind the bugs don't bite. If they do, Cut 'em in two and they won't bite another night! Silly really as there were never bugs in our beds....just food for thought. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: GUEST,Chief Chaos Date: 29 Apr 08 - 06:48 PM Georgiansilver, What was this food for thought that you kept in your bed? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: TRUBRIT Date: 30 Oct 08 - 02:16 AM And I just remembered another one -- to stress when she didn't care a person or thing my mum would say, " I don't care if s/he/it is sky blue pink with a finnyaddan border' -- at least that is what it sounded like...... Anyone ever heard that one? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Gurney Date: 30 Oct 08 - 03:27 AM My mother and her mother used to say " Tidy yourself up,(or something) you look like nobody owns you!" This in the English midlands. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Jim Dixon Date: 30 Oct 08 - 02:18 PM My dad would say "I'll jerk a knot in your tail!"—a semi-humorous way of threatening violence. When my shoe soles wore out, he'd say, "Can't you just pick 'em up an' set 'em down?", meaning, I suppose, don't drag your feet. If he noticed me picking my nose, he'd say, "Are you goin' fishin'?" I'd say (before I learned the joke), "No. Why?" He'd say, "I see you're diggin' for bait." After that, "Goin' fishin'?" was a sufficient reprimand. (By the way, when I was a kid, I never heard of artificial lures, or of buying worms or minnows. We always dug up our own worms.) About something worthless, he'd say "That ain't worth a hoot in a whirlwind." (I suppose "hoot" was a euphemism for "fart" but I didn't figure that out until much later.) Another euphemism for "farted" was "stepped on a frog." (I have never actually stepped on a frog, but I suppose it sounds like a fart. I also suppose that literally stepping on a frog was a more common experience when people had to go outdoors to use the outhouse, even at night. Imagine doing that barefoot!) The cruelest thing my father ever said to me—and he said this more than once—was, "I'll take you back to the hospital." See, before I knew where babies really came from, I thought babies came from hospitals. When a couple decided they wanted a baby, they would go to a hospital and pick one out. Later (I was told) if they decided they didn't like the one they had, they could take him back and exchange him. "Next time, I'll get a good little boy," he'd say. Even after I no longer believed he could do that, he could still make me cry by saying it. I cried because I believed he really meant it—he really wished he could take me back, and he didn't care that I knew it. He was, in other words, a real asshole. I never thought I'd do it, but I cried when he died. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: GUEST,Slag Date: 30 Oct 08 - 05:48 PM Unka Dave! Pepsi Cola had an advertisement back in the 50's which stated "Pepsi Cola hits the spot..." I can't remember the last rhyme because everyone I knew would answer the first line with "...especially when you're on the pot!" Oh what clever little minds! Another was "Ah ha! Sani-flush! Cleans your teeth without a brush!" Sani-flush was, of course, a toilet bowl cleaner but I can't remember if that was the product which was being lampooned. Georgian Ag, Good night! Sleep tight! Don't let the bedbugs bite! If they do, hit 'em with a shoe Then charge them all a dollar fifty-two! As for flatulence euphemisms could be an entirely new thread. A few: Cut the cheese Squeezed the cheese Toot Break wind The above noted "Stepped on a frog" Let one Your burp went out the backdoor |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Sorcha Date: 30 Oct 08 - 06:45 PM Slag, you forgot 'air biscuit' |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Bill D Date: 30 Oct 08 - 07:33 PM TRUEBRIT---I thought for years that MY mother had invented "sky-blue pink" to tease us kids about the color of something, but in some earlier thread I learned it was just something she collected. Here is the best explanation I have seen. When she was in her 70s, I found a ceramic tile that was indeed, pink mixed with sky-blue. I gave it to her for her birthday. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: GUEST,Slag Date: 31 Oct 08 - 04:05 AM I had a Botany/biology teacher in HS whose faavorite little refrain was "Do you know what a suprize is? A fart with a lump in it!" It was funny, once. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity Date: 31 Oct 08 - 04:08 AM Looks like a tornado went through here! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Jim Dixon Date: 31 Oct 08 - 09:34 PM I thought it would be interesting to use Google Book Search to find out how old some of these expressions are. Here are partial results: "Yes, the one with a face like a plateful of mortal sins."—from "The Big House," a play by Brendan Behan, 1957. "There were no symptoms of her having had her clothes flung on with a pitchfork, nor of having been drawn through a hedge backwards."—from "Sketches of Character" by Jane Kennedy, 1851. "I thort this mornin' he looked as ef he'd been dragged through a knothole."—from "The Yale Literary Magazine," 1851. "Now, I'm prepared to back this office against the world; but remember, if I catch any of you at that, it's goodnight nurse! You understand?"—from "Poor Dear Theodora!" by Florence Irwin, 1920. "…that if ever he troubled him again upon such a paltry subject, his intention was to give him such a proper hiding, as would prevent the best of his friends from knowing him again for about a month of Sundays."—from "Memoirs of a Picture" by William Collins, 1805. "Judas Priest! How high up we are!"—from "To and Through Nebraska" by Frances I. Sims Fulton, 1884. "If you say that 'ere again, I'll knock you into the middle of next week!"—from "American Comic Annual," 1831. I might post more tomorrow. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Becca72 Date: 01 Nov 08 - 07:20 AM In my family the color was "sky-blue pink with purple polka dots" |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: GUEST,Bizibod Date: 01 Nov 08 - 10:20 AM My Welsh grandfather- in -law as a term of extreme surprise or frustration would exclaim ,"Jesus Patsy !" And my grandma would warn us to stand well back on the railway station as "the steam will draw you under! " As little kids my brother and I when admonished and told to apologise used to flip our t shirts over our heads.No idea why we thought this the correct procedure ! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: TRUBRIT Date: 01 Nov 08 - 10:40 AM bill - that was fascinatiang -- thank you soooooomuch - I have wondered about that expression for years and you even solved the finny addan border. Made my day. Tks. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Cluin Date: 01 Nov 08 - 10:54 AM My mom uses a regular cuss: "Oh, bitch and be buggered!" Is that natural progression, Mom? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Jim Dixon Date: 01 Nov 08 - 01:12 PM More quotes found with Google Book Search: "When she entered the kitchen, matters were going on as usual—her mother bustling in style, and as cross 'as a bag of weasels.'"—from "Sketches of Irish Character" by Mrs. S. C. Hall, in "Chambers's Edinburgh Journal," 1845. "…where the captain was standing as upright as a fathom of smoke in a calm, and the master was bent down like a yard of pump-water measured from the spout, and looking over a chart of the harbour, as busy as the devil in a gale of wind."—from "Tough Yarns, by the Old Sailor," by Matthew Henry Baker, 1835. "One of the most popular plays locally during the post-Civil War period was a spoof entitled The Irish Aristocracy; or Muldoon's Picnic."—from "Showtime in Cleveland: The Rise of a Regional Theater Center," by John Vacha, 2001. "Pakapoo ticket: noun, something indecipherable or overly complicated. Australia, 1951. Pakapoo is a Chinese gambling game that appears to outsiders to be quite complicated."—from "The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English," by Eric Partridge, et al., 2006. "…for helping her to put back the clock by taking her to the right places for her frocks, and toques, and—oh, my giddy Aunt!—her transformations."—from "A Comedy of Mammon," by Ina Garvey, 1908. "Look at old George down there. There he is! Look at him! He stands like one o'clock half-struck."—from "The Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, by One of the Fraternity," by William Green, 1876. "…afterwards complained that the streets were so crooked and twisted out of all shape that at every corner he was actually afraid he should meet himself coming back the other way."—from "About Tomintoul" by Tom N. Towler, in "The Celtic Monthly," 1903. "The old adage, 'that the eyes are bigger than the stomach,' may be applied to many an Amphytrion as well as school-boy."—from "Essays, Moral, Philosophical, and Stomachical, on the Important Science of Good-Living," by Launcelot Sturgeon, 1823. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: lady penelope Date: 01 Nov 08 - 02:13 PM LOL! I'd forgotten some of these (Have you seen the back of your neck? What a classic!) My mother's favourites.. "Ach, haud yer whist" (be quiet) "Ach, it's far aff yer backside, ye willnae sit on it" (anything painful that you complained about) "Yer neither sugar no salt, ya willnae melt" (for when complaining about getting wet) "Who rattled your cage?" (For when you bothered her about anything...) "Get that lip aff the flair" (for when you weren't happy for whatever reason) "You'll be laughing on the other side of yer face in a minute" (General threat of violence.. *G*) "You're a clatty bugger" (for despairing at your general state) "What did your last slave die of?" Aren't mothers wonderful...? LOL! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Bert Date: 01 Nov 08 - 02:52 PM From Mum, "I'll do you with the rough end of a pineapple" "You look like a sack of shit tied up with string" From Dad, "You know what Thought did?" "No" "Shit his pants" "Did he?" "No, he only thought he did" |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Cluin Date: 01 Nov 08 - 05:21 PM "It's a nice day. G'wan outside and blow the stink off ya!" |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Jim Dixon Date: 02 Nov 08 - 10:59 PM "A pair of rascally little cross-firing, twinkling eyes, that, as the country people said, looked at least nine ways from Sunday."—from "Lights and Shadows of American Life" by Mary Russell Mitford, 1832. "'Don't, Master Walter,' cried Dolly, 'you'll make the dog sick; and you'd make a better door than a window, too,' she said, giving him a little push. 'What do you mean? Am I in your light?' he said, laughing."—from "A Mingled Yarn" By Henry S Mackarness and Matilda Anne Mackarness, 1872. "A very good way to get Mr. —— into trouble, and prevent him ever doing a favour in the future to any other prisoner."—from "My Prison Life" by Jabez Spencer Balfour, 1907. "Chaloner shudders a little, as if a goose had walked over his grave."—from "Second Thoughts" by Rhoda Broughton, 1880. "By the way, if one is to judg of a Man by the company he keeps, he may presume to say Mr. F-rg-s-n is of the Red Letter stamp."—from "Memoirs of Secret Service" by Matthew Smith, 1699. "O haud yer whist, ye silly gowk! Ye've nae richt to complain."—from "Willie Waugh and Other Poems" by James Nicholson, Ellen C Nicholson, 1884. "The people have scarcely sat down to table than they feel ants in their pants and begin to dance, old and young alike."—from "The Rhythm of the Dynamo" by Paul Claudel, in "The Living Age" 1936. "She looks as if butter wouldn't melt in her mouth—but she's a sly one, I tell you."—from "Paul Pry" by John Poole, 1825. "Luttrells of whom I think it was Lord Beaconsfield who said that the men of the race were remarkable for straight hair and curly teeth."—from "Baily's Magazine of Sports and Pastimes", 1881. "Faith, this scene of Orion is right prandium caninum, a dog's dinner!"—from "Summer's Last Will and Testament" by Thomas Nashe, 1600. "Mind, if you get blown to bits, don't come running to me for sympathy!"—from a picture caption, in "Punch, or the London Charivari," 1898. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: GUEST,The black belt caterpilaw wrestler Date: 03 Nov 08 - 08:29 AM Informal forms of address used when I was dirty or untidy from my father: "Fly-be-night" "Blacking brush" After cleaning up I was "Shined polished and my ears put further back". He had several words that corresponded to "Thingumy" when he couldn't think of the correct noun, "left handed (or cack-handed) capurtula" was my favoutite. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Dave Roberts Date: 03 Nov 08 - 09:14 AM On the frequent occasions when I was demonstrating my incompetence at, say, fastening my shoelaces or putting my pullover on the right way round, my mother would tell me that I 'shaped like a wooden man made of smoke'. On the infrequent occasions when I was nicely scrubbed, polished and neatly dressed she would refer to me as a 'bobby dazzler'. The latter epithet cannot now be used in decent company since it was appropriated as a catchphrase by that strange man with an irritating voice and orange face who does antique shows for the BBC. His name escapes me. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Dave Roberts Date: 03 Nov 08 - 10:44 AM Of course, being pedantic (which is always fun)I realise that I should have written '....who does antiques shows for the BBC' rather than 'antique shows'. It is the objects he talks about which are antique, not the shows. I wouldn't want anyone to think that I write English like a wooden man made of smoke... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Rowan Date: 03 Nov 08 - 10:36 PM Well, Dave, your BBC antiques man hasn't yet appeared in Oz (as far as I know) so you can still use "bobby dazzler" here, as I occasionally do. Cheers, Rowan |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: TRUBRIT Date: 03 Nov 08 - 11:25 PM I thought Bobby Dazzler was completely acceptable....dont know the origin but I know what it means,,,,,,,,,,s/he is a right bobby dazzler .....quite a compliment.... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: GUEST,The black belt caterpillar wrestler Date: 04 Nov 08 - 08:08 AM Doing something incompetently: "Like a cow handling a musket". |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Dave Roberts Date: 04 Nov 08 - 08:26 AM No, you're right. I was being (or trying to be) gently ironic with the 'Bobby Dazzler' reference and my (mild) prejudice against this particular TV presenter doesn't make the expression unacceptable. The antiques man in question (does anyone know his name?) has a species of northern English accent and I'd assumed that 'Bobby Dazzler' was a northern expression. Like many other expressions quoted in the posts above, it would appear to be a lot more widespread than that. Another expression used here in northern England is 'not struck', meaning 'less than enthusiastic'. This is another expression my mother (and everyone else) used all the time. I was amused to read in the autobiography of film expert Leslie Halliwell that a major film distribution company once held a special preview of some film or other in a northern town and asked the opinion of the locals. The general concensus was that they were 'not struck' and the unfortunate southern film people were left scratching their heads in puzzlement. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Jim Dixon Date: 04 Nov 08 - 09:27 AM "...I just looked at him—and he turned [r]ound saying, 'Don't look at me in that tone of voice, Jones,'...." —"Cleansing Fires" by Newton Sears, 1877. "A face that would stop a clock, i. e. repellent." —"A Glossary of Words and Phrases Used in S. E. Worcestershire" by Jesse Salisbury, 1894. "'Yes ; looks as if he's lost a quid and found a tanner,' said the doctor." —"Chronicles of Service Life in Malta" by Nina Stuart, 1908. "You look like a fellow that had lost a bob and found a tanner." —"Ulysses" by James Joyce, 1937. "'Now get out from under my feet, you,' said he sternly...." —"The Long Exile: and Other Stories for Children" by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Nathan Haskell Dole, 1888. "...till I'm tempted to give you the back of my hand and the sole of my foot..." —"Ten Years of a Lifetime: A Novel" by Margaret Hosmer, 1866. "When they give you the glad eye, take it, an' when they don't, just you walk by 'em sort of hummin' under your breath." —"The House of Bondage" by Reginald Wright Kauffman, 1910. "The water does not taste nice—it wouldn't be a 'medicine spring' if it did; but it is good for what ails you." —"My Rambles in the Enchanted Summer Land of the Great Northwest" by the Chicago and North-Western Railway, 1882. "Good-night, Sleep tight, Don't let the bedbugs bite." —"What They Say in New England: A Book of Signs, Sayings, and Superstitions" by Clifton Johnson, 1896. "...for the purpose of purifying themselves; or, as the lieutenant coarsely, but most truly expressed it, 'to blow the stink off' them." —"The Life and Literary Remains of Charles Reece Pemberton" by Charles Reece Pemberton et al., 1843. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: TRUBRIT Date: 04 Nov 08 - 10:35 PM I guess I don't know who the TV presenter is.... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 05 Nov 08 - 12:27 AM I'm probably the only one here whose mother would say, when I looked messy... Comb your hair! You look like an ad for the Save the Children Federation! And if she thought we were getting 'above ourselves,' she'd say. What do you think you are, Mrs. Astor's plush horse? That would have been insulting and unkind, but fortunately we had no idea what she was talking about. One Sunday we heard the Bible verse, "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." A few days later somebody offered her seconds at lunchtime and she replied, "Sufficient unto the day is the liver sausage thereof." Nobody else's mother said things like that. I was so proud of her. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: GUEST,The black belt caterpillar wrestler Date: 05 Nov 08 - 07:53 AM If you left the door open you were asked "Were you born in a barn?". I noticed after the Townsend-Torresand (spelling?) disaster that this had changed to "Were you born in a ferry?". A friend of mine was involved with the enquiry into that disaster and came back with a carrier bag labeled "This way up". |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Jim Dixon Date: 05 Nov 08 - 11:57 AM "'Hark at you!' she said scornfully. 'Did ever any one hear the like?'" —"The Story of a Marriage" by Alfred Baldwin, 1895. "'Bedad, turn round and look at the back of your neck; you haven't washed it since ye 'listed.' The drill instructor's face turned scarlet with rage...." —"Irish Life and Humour, in Anecdote and Story" by William Harvey, 1908. "He hadn't the brains God gave to the goose." —"The Lady Aft" by Richard Matthews Hallet, 1915. "The man that knocks is a sore head, a block head, a chronic kicker and the south end of a horse going north, and is very apt to be a liar." —"The Scientific Steel Worker: A Practical Manual for Steel Workers and Blacksmiths" by Ozro A. Westover, 1907. "Perhaps the zealous Credit-Man who follows this rule may be like the hostess who said to her guest: 'Here's your hat! What's your hurry?'" —"Hardware Dealers' Magazine", 1910. "If it had been a snake it would have bitten you." —"Emmett Bonlore: A Novel" by Opie Percival Read, 1891. "If you lie down with dogs, you'll get up with fleas, and that's the fruits of travelling with a fool." —"Jack Hinton, The Guardsman" by Charles Lever, in "The Dublin University Magazine", 1842. "'Stop that blubbering this instant, or I'll give you something to cry for,' said the teacher sharply." —"A Scene in Courtship Drawn from Real Life" in "The Poughkeepsie Casket: A Semi-Monthly Literary Journal" by Egbert B. Killey, Benson John Lossing, 1839. "The next time I am pointing birds and you come blundering in ahead of me, I'll wear you out good and hard." —"Pete and Some Other Dogs" by Pete, in "Recreation" edited by George O. Shields, 1899. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Dave Roberts Date: 05 Nov 08 - 01:10 PM I did what I should have done originally, but didn't through sheer idleness. I looked up the name of the TV presenter in question. He's called David Dickinson, and his other big catch-phrase is 'cheap as chips'. It appears that he has left broadcasting and now works for ITV (more irony, in case anyone should wonder). |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: GUEST,Bizibod Date: 05 Nov 08 - 03:40 PM "I am not as green as I'm cabbage-looking", meaning, "If you think I'm going to believe that, then you've another think coming!" "I don't boil my cabbages twice", meaning, "My views on that subject are already known to you !" Both of those from my grandma. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: paula t Date: 05 Nov 08 - 06:20 PM How about "It's like trying to plait fog!" This was said when mum was trying to get us all out of the door at once in the morning and all with our stuff for school too. I have to admit to using this one myself at times too. It just seems to sum up perfectly the impossible task that seems to drift into chaos just as you think you've got it sorted. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: GUEST,leeneia Date: 06 Nov 08 - 09:45 AM "It's like trying to plait fog!" Now that is different and elegant. Thanks, Paula. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Flash Company Date: 06 Nov 08 - 10:20 AM We had it as 'Like tryimg to knit fog'. Another favourite, 'Mum, there's nowhere to sit!' 'Put your thumb in your bum and sit on your elbow!' FC |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Chorusgirl Date: 06 Nov 08 - 12:06 PM If, as children, we were shouting about, my mum would say "Be quiet, you've got a voice like tearing oilcloth". |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Jim Dixon Date: 06 Nov 08 - 12:41 PM "They are three pretty simpletons,—with the niminy-piminy airs of a fashionable boarding school;—there is silliness without simplicity;—and no two qualities can be more opposite." —"The Diary of an Invalid: Being the Journal of a Tour in Pursuit of Health" by Henry Matthews, 1820. "The main consolation the sufferer got was the frequent assurance that it was only the ague and nobody ever died from it." —"Semi-centennial Celebration of Michigan State Agricultural College" by Thomas Charles Blaisdell, 1908. "Your horse, my lord, was very backward in coming forward, he was behind before, but he's first at last." —"The New Monthly Magazine, and Literary Journal" by W P Harrison, 1823. "It was an Irish coroner who, when asked how he accounted for the extraordinary mortality in Limerick, replied, sadly, 'I cannot tell. There are people dying this year that never died before.'" —"Notes and Queries", 1871. "We'll put some hair on your chest before we get through with you." —"The Whip Hand: A Tale of the Pine Country" by Samuel Merwin, 1903. "WOOD IN THE HOLE. To put the wood in the hole (put t' wood i' t' hoil) is an expression often heard amongst knife-grinders as equivalent to 'shut the door.'" —"A Glossary of Words Used in the Neighbourhood of Sheffield" by Sidney Oldall Addy, 1888. "...whom one of them declared, She had suspected to be some low creature, from the beginning of their journey; and another affirmed, had not even the looks of a gentlewoman; a third warranted, She was no better than she should be;..." —"The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews, and His Friend Mr Abraham Adams" by Henry Fielding, 1779. "I'll tell you: I'm a poor man—it's a fact—and smell like a wet dog; but I can't be run over!" —"The Cincinnati Miscellany, Or, Antiquities of the West, and Pioneer History" by Charles Cist, 1846. "You feel a slight chill as you enter, but merely ascribing it to some one's having stepped on your grave, you shake it off...." —"Medical Council", 1906. "His old Salt Lake friend disgustedly replied: 'O, that's something that the cat dragged in.'" —"Mines and Methods", 1911. "When I arrived at Doncaster, yesterday morning, myself and Creeping Jesus had only one-and-sevenpence between us." —"Some interesting Yorkshire scenes" by J. Tomlinson, 1865. (Is anybody reading these?) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Rowan Date: 06 Nov 08 - 04:56 PM They're great, Jim. I'm impressed! Cheers, Rowan |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: GUEST,The black belt caterpillar wrestler Date: 07 Nov 08 - 07:58 AM Phrases remembered from my grandmother (born 1892 in Somerset, England) "I don't chew my cabbages twice." "I've got a bone in my leg" (Excuse for not playing with me). "There's no accounting for taste, as the old woman said as she kissed the cow". |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Jim Dixon Date: 07 Nov 08 - 08:35 PM "'You've reversed the old adage,' said he, 'about the odd things you see when you haven't got a gun.'" —"Hunters Three: Sport and Adventure in South Africa" by Thomas Wallace Knox, William M. Cary, 1895. "The week of years. This was a period of seven years, during the last of which, the land remained untilled, and the people enjoyed a sabbath or season of rest." —"Jahn's Biblical Archaeology" by Johann Jahn, Thomas Cogswell Upham, 1827. "Don't I look like the wreck of the Hesperus? Honest to goodness, I feel like nine dollars' worth of dog meat hanging out of a hospital window." —"The Sorrows of a Show Girl: A Story of the Great 'White Way'" by Kenneth McGaffey, 1908. "...but usually, as the old saying is, 'There is more than one way to skin a cat'—more than one method of producing the same result." —"Report of the Secretary" by Michigan State Board of Agriculture, 1880. "'This will hurt me far more than it will hurt you, my lad,' said Armstrong senior; and Paul, by a swift, sidelong movement of the mind, decided that he had been born a liar because his father was one before him." —"Despair's Last Journey" by David Christie Murray, 1901. "Margaret, turn off the waterworks, unless you wish to drive me mad." —"A Professional Rider" by Mary E. Kennard, 1903. "On coming in again, a gust of cold air, like a tangible presence and which cut like a knife, came in with him, and awoke Jamie. 'The deuce'—only he put it more forcibly—'take you, Yorke; were you born in a barn?' snapped the Amiable One." —"Sinners Twain: A Romance of the Great Lone Land" by John Mackie, 1895. "The old expression, 'trying to heat the whole outdoors,' has been so impressed upon their minds that, by trying to keep all the heat in, they keep all the fresh air out." —"Your Baby: A Guide for Young Mothers" by Edith Belle Lowry, 1915. "Good-night! come again when you can't stay so long." —"A New and Practical System of the Culture of Voice and Action" by Joseph Edwin Frobisher, 1867. "Cha'n ann de shiolachadh a' phoca-shalainn thu. You are not of the seed of the salt-pock. Sometimes said to boys sent out in the rain, = You won't melt." —"A Collection of Gaelic Proverbs and Familiar Phrases" by Donald Macintosh, Alexander Nicolson, 1882. "It's weel your faults are no written on your forehead." —"Scottish Proverbs" by Andrew Henderson, William Motherwell, 1832. "Bankers did not give 'owt for nowt,' as Matt put it to himself." —"Sons of Belial" by William Westall, 1895. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: gecko Date: 08 Nov 08 - 04:33 AM To a grizzling (whining) child - "put that face straight or else!" Mother finding something we were supposed to be looking for "what's this, a bloody carrot!" "do as you're told" "you're as daft as a brush" Fidgeting child "you're like a fart in a colandar" Getting home after strict 10pm deadline "what time do you call this!" Peering up the street through the curtains "get away from the windows - what do you think this is, Aggie Weston's caff?" Using too much milk "do you think we've got a cow up the garden?" "do you think money grows on trees?" I'm sure Mom and Dad loved us but money was pretty tight in the 1950's + 60's and the 'next meal' often involved a stale loaf with jam. YIU gecko |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Art Thieme Date: 08 Nov 08 - 01:31 PM "God needed him more than we do!" ---after my father died when I was 5 years old and simply devastated. "Doing that will make ghair grow on your palms!" -------Yeah, you got it! Art |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: TRUBRIT Date: 12 Nov 08 - 07:30 PM OK - one more. If my sister and I came down stairs dressed similarly, or a friend came over and we were wearing much the same thing my mum would say that we looked like 'Mrs. Binn's twins' (pronounced Mrs. Binnes twinses.....')--any one heard that. Just got back from the UK yesterday and heard again the old favorite -- they are as different as chalk and cheese........... which I think is a pretty great description.... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Jim Dixon Date: 13 Nov 08 - 03:20 PM "Every day he goes the round of his traps, and his invariable answer when asked what he has caught is, 'What the little boy shot at!' The little boy in question is legendary and proverbial, and is supposed to have shot at 'nothin'." —"The New England Magazine" 1892. "You'd lose your head if it wasn't fastened on!" —"The Young Pioneers of the North-west" by Charles H. Pearson, 1870. "'There'll be laughing on the other side of their mouths, I guess, before the week is out' cried the artist in a spiteful tone." —"Putnam's Magazine" 1854. "'Child,' said she, very coldly, 'your voice is like a bee in a bottle.'" —"Maids of Honour: A Tale of the Court of George I" by Robert Folkestone Williams, 1845. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Rapparee Date: 13 Nov 08 - 06:04 PM My mother used to say, "Boys, boys, boys! How many times do I have to tell you not to shoot guns in the house?" I'll bet yours did too. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Lonesome EJ Date: 14 Nov 08 - 01:26 AM Sure, Rapaire. Also "leave that %#@&! blasting cap alone!" and "don't stick your butter knife in the electric outlet!" |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Jim Dixon Date: 14 Nov 08 - 11:31 AM "Yes, you expect to turn up here every few years now, dressed like Mrs. Astor's plush horse and high and mighty as a duchess..." —"Family Reunion" by Janet Curren Owen, Arthur W Rushmore, 1933. - 313 pages "As Teenie says, 'I'm not as green as I'm cabbage looking.'" —"The Congresswoman" by Isabel Gordon Curtis, 1914. "It's no use to sell your cabbages twice, says I, and I never repeats." —"The Overland Monthly" by Bret Harte, 1870. "I talked to everyone, said the same thing to everyone for two mortal hours, and a young woman with a voice that sounded like tearing oil-cloth sang two songs and another recited two stories. I nearly died." —"F.D.R.: His Personal Letters, Early Years" by Franklin D. Roosevelt, Elliott Roosevelt, 2005, [letter dated 1900]. "'Nothing of the sort,' rejoined the lady; 'and I'll trouble you to get off.' 'Can't—I've got a bone in my leg,' rejoined the captain." —"New Monthly Magazine and Humorist", 1851. "Every one to his own taste, as the old woman said when she kissed the cow." —"Dreams and Reveries of a Quiet Man" by Theodore Sedgwick Fay, Joseph Dewey Fay, 1832. "Go to, my poor boy; go to, and be not foolish; do as you're told and no trifling." —"The Partisan: A Tale of the Revolution" by William Gilmore Simms, 1835. "Though not finding it that imaginary El Dorado where honey flows in streams and money grows on trees, many of the most restless and roving have come here." —"Merchants' Magazine and Commercial Review", 1848. "You are like all the rest of the world, I believe you think that money grows on trees, and that I have only to put out my hand and gather it..." —"Ruling the Roast", by Emma Carolina Wood, 1874. "Why! here is a parcel of words full as analogous as chalk and cheese, or a cat and a cartwheel!" —"Works", by François Rabelais [translated by Du Chat, Motteux, Ozell, et al.], 1807. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Art Thieme Date: 14 Nov 08 - 03:30 PM When I got my first guitar, she said: "If you pick it, it'll never heal!" Art |
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Subject: RE: BS: Did your mum say this to you..... From: Rapparee Date: 14 Nov 08 - 05:14 PM When I took up trumpet my mother said, "You keep playing with it and it'll fall off!" |
