Southern-isms (Jackson, Jacksonville: Valentine's day, house, university)

[pirate_lafitte]

Originally Posted by small town south

What is your favorite southernism? What does it mean to you? I love some of the old southern expressions - like "that dog won't hunt" and "useless as teats on a boar hog". (They are much more descriptive and fun than those text message combo-words.) You may have heard such expressions from your grandparents or, for newcomers, from a town elder. At any rate, we don't hear them much anymore. I thought it would be fun to tap memories and get a collection going!

I don't use any of them(and I have live in the South consistently since 1992 from age 6, was born in New Orleans. I don't consider TX as a part of the Southeast.). We're ralking about the same kid who uses words like pop(the drink, not grandpa).

[cotton]

Love it, y'all!
Cat head biscuits, pineapple sandwiches, peanut butter and banana sandwiches - how about porkin beans, vi-annie sausage and saltine crackers for lunch? oh, with rat cheese. "Set down and have a bite." "Gonna fix a bait of collards." or maybe a "mess of greens." That kinda food'll "stick to your ribs."
You have 'sweet milk' or buttermilk. You have biscuits, cornbread or 'white bread.'
Love the directions too. You can bet the barn hadn't been rebuilt or the mangy dog gone.... "Down the road a piece" - could be half a mile or ten miles. And when asking distance..."How far is XXX?" "Oh 'bout an air (hour)" or "Take ye bout 20 minutes."

I grew up in the mountains of North Georgia but have been gone for many years. I love to hear them talk, and it doesn't take a minute for me to get back into it!

Spread up the bed - not make the bed
Cut off the lights when you leave the room.
Then there is poor and pore and purr. Purr ol' Unca JimBob fell offen th roof and got laid up. Dear Uncle JimBob is not destitute - he's just in need of sympathy. Or .. Lil GracieMae is so pore since the newmownya. (She's skin and bones - lost a lot of weight.) Or, ya know they could jest be pore as church mice!
Did any of your Granddaddys cut butter and sorghum together to spread on the biscuits?
Naw, it idden goin to rain - not as long as you can see enough blue sky to patch a kitten's britches.
But now, if you see the sun "drawin' water" then fer shur it's gonna rain.
You can 'smell a storm a'comin' or 'smell snow' but watch out if you get a "gully-washer." Yep, it's bout time for me to hit the hay. Nite, John Boy.

[SCBeaches]

I love these...some I haven't heard in years! Great thread...I hope we can keep it going.

My grandparents lived in Lindale, Tallapoosa, then Thomaston throughout their marriage 1925 - 1980. They didn't have much money, but raised 18 (yes, 18) children with a lot of love, faith, and a strong work ethic. I remember sitting in their living room on stormy evenings, with a bunch of my cousins, telling stories as we listened to the rain pounding on the tin roof while we roasted peanuts in the fireplace. Then the next morning, PawPaw might hook up the wagon to the mules and take us for a ride down the dirt road to the store. Simple times, but such fond memories!

[SCBeaches]

[quote=FlourChild;2618347]Ditto on the cornbread and milk. My grandaddy ("Papaw", RIP) taught me that those biscuits are called "catheads"--get ready for the circular logic here--b/c cats with big round heads/faces are called "biscuit-headed" cats. Hee.

Thanks for explaining that...I always wondered where the term "catheads" came from. My mom never knew either.

[FlourChild]

There's always "stove up", which can refer to not having consumed enough fiber, OR to having hurt oneself in a terrible fall/accident.

"He done fell off the roof, an' now his back is all stove up."
"Eatchew summa them collards, so yew don't git stove up." Gross, but true.

To "light a shuck" means to get a move on, get the lead out.

[Alex]

My two favourites:
Never argue with a drunk, a skunk or a redhaired woman.
I feel like I been rode hard and put up wet.

[SCBeaches]

"Quincy Graybeard" or "Witches Beard" for Spanish moss

"thicket" for patch of woods

I haven't seen you in a month of Sundays!

Coke soda or Cokecola ....for any type of soda pop

pone of corn bread

mess of collards or mess of greens

[small town south]

To quote SC Breaches:

mess of collards or mess of greens

Of course, there's always the "mess o' catfish". If there's a mess of anything, that's a whole lot!

Interesting about your remembered name for Spanish moss - Quincy graybeard. There's a tree in Georgia my grandmother always called Grant's Graybeard (at least that's what I thought she said - and Grant did have a gray beard, but I can't imagine a southerner honoring him with a namesake southern tree!)

[Airchauffeur]

OK, I'll give ya one.."Takin the Browns to the super bowl'..Going to poop!

[Nikki88]

My favorites are:
1) "Stick a pin in it" -- when you want to interrupt somebody or change the topic
2) "Too much like right" -- come after why someone didn't do the right thing "Mama, I lost my key. It too much like right for you to keep up with it!"