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I have heard people use the phrase "such and such" It is normally used when someone is referring to something some one else said like ,"he said when he was there they did "such and such" and I told him we don't do that here"
Last edited by thriftylefty; 11-04-2010 at 11:35 AM..
For those Iowans who use 'sack,' what part of the state do you live in?
Iowa City / Cedar Rapids area growing up "sacks" were "bags". I worked at a grocery store, and always asked if they wanted a paper or plastic sack.
Or at people's houses "don't throw that sack away - we collect them!".
Then I come to Chicago and ask the lady at 7-11 for a "sack" for my milk and she just stands there staring. I was really confused and asked two more times, and finally the guy behind said "I think he means a bag". I was like - DUH!
"I was gonna say!" is huge in Chicago. I also hear "and such and such" and "well it is what it is".
Lol, cant believe you said that about coming down the hill.......no one gets that unless you're from there.
But it really is the dividing line, isnt it?
My mama is a flatlander, Eastern Butler County, Fisk, to be exact. Thats something else no one gets unless they are from the area.
You go from the German and Catholic influences in the hills to the Baptist, southern influence once you get into the flatlands...cotton country.
Spent many a day running around rice and bean fields between Fisk and Rombauer .
I have never heard anyone that was a Missourian say that, but I have heard it quite a bit in South central Tennessee.
Actually, I have heard a very strange version of that in Louisville, my former mother-in-law and all her relations would say "Well, I swan!"
Never could figure out where that one came from, I asked them to spell it, and thats what they gave me, swan.
My grandparents and all my great aunts and uncles said "I swan". All of were born and raised in Texas. I thought it was just a nicer way of saying "I swear", which my grandmother would have considered akin to cursing.
Growing up in Texas we all used "sack" to refer to a grocery bag, or the thing you used to carry your lunch to school. People here in Oklahoma use it as well.
You go from the German and Catholic influences in the hills to the Baptist, southern influence once you get into the flatlands...cotton country.
Spent many a day running around rice and bean fields between Fisk and Rombauer .
Yeah, no one seems to realize how swift and complete that change is unless they are a native, or a long-time transplant to the area.
My Grandpa used to make us hoe and pick a row of cotton on his farm, it was his way of expressing the importance of education.
Wonder if they still have cotton vacation in those parts? I was always envious of my flatlander cousins about that.
My grandparents and all my great aunts and uncles said "I swan". All of were born and raised in Texas. I thought it was just a nicer way of saying "I swear", which my grandmother would have considered akin to cursing.
Growing up in Texas we all used "sack" to refer to a grocery bag, or the thing you used to carry your lunch to school. People here in Oklahoma use it as well.
'I swan' becomes 'I suwanee' (just like the river in Fla.) in coastal South Carolina and Georgia.
Don't know why, or its origins.
'Geez' ( if it does come from 'Jesus') has a identical saying in Brazil, where 'Nossa' (for "Nossa Senhora'- Virgin Mary) is what's said when stunned or exasperated.
My grandparents and all my great aunts and uncles said "I swan". All of were born and raised in Texas. I thought it was just a nicer way of saying "I swear", which my grandmother would have considered akin to cursing.
Funny how a saying can morph in meaning from region to region, isnt it?
Only place I ever heard the "I swan" thing was in Louisville, I know my ex MIL was born and raised in the area, have no idea if her ancestors were from there.
First time I heard "sack" was in Cedar Rapids, IA. Guy in a drug store asked his kid if he'd like a "sack" of M&Ms. Sounded funny to me, as I reserve the word sack for big bulky things like fertilizer.
I agree competely; to me, a "sack" implies much greater volume or bulk..
There is also a 'pail/bucket' line that runs through the Midwest; not sure of its precise location- somewhere south of here.
Millions of eons back, when the expression 'What's you bag?' was popular here in the US, some of my co-workers had the pleasure of being in Central America.
We tried to start an equivalent local idiom ('Que es su saco?') but the Chapins just didn't get it.
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