Old Milwaukee colloquialisms (Port Washington, Luxemburg, Washington: house, bill, money)

[Ralph Shinners]

My parents have always said when they first moved to Milwaukee in the mid '60's they found it amusing some of unique turn of phrases that older Milwaukeeans had at that time.

The only one I can recall is I thought they said people would say "going down by" rather than "going to" - so it would be "I'm going down by Schuster's."

Does anyone recall this or other distinctive phrases?

[Milwaukee City]

We tend to say "Lookit" instead of look at it or look at this or listen hear. I agree with your "going down by". We say "you know?" but that might be more Wisconsin than Milwaukee. Bubbler is the most obvious one, another few are instead of calling tools by their actual name we will say "hand me that crescent wrench when crescent is a brand and not a type of wrench, we will do this for all adjustable wrenches or "hand me the "sawzall" when it isn't a sawzall brand but that is what is sold over here in Milwaukee. The same goes for "Channellocks".

[Ralph Shinners]

Hey Milwaukee City - While I had in mind phrases from previous generations, that's an interesting point that there are probably current ones as well, I hadn't thought about that.

A current one I would add would be to use "seen" instead of "saw" - like "I seen that Bill was here the other day." Perhaps this is not unique to this area, but it seems like it is to me.

[Milwaukee City]

You also hear a lot of "yous" I know yous is more popular with people from Chicago but my dad says it all the time and a lot of his friends do that are in the 50's demo. "Yous" might be more popular in MKE say from I94 and south

[Devitron5000]

"Tyme Machine" was the first one that came to mind for me. For a long time, "Tyme" (Take Your Money Everywhere) was the main brand of ATMs in Southeast Wisco, so when people went to the ATM they'd say "I'm going to the Tyme Machine."

"Dookies" as in Nike Air Force 1's.

"On The G" as in "I Swear to God/goodness."

"Stop and Go Lights" for traffic lights.

And, of course, saying "Soda" instead of "Pop" (unlike most of the Midwest).

[Milwaukee City]

Oh here's one: Metro's! back in the day all port-a-pottys were from a company called metro so nearly everyone over 30 calls a port-a-potty a metro.

[almost3am]

Originally Posted by Devitron5000

"Tyme Machine" was the first one that came to mind for me. For a long time, "Tyme" (Take Your Money Everywhere) was the main brand of ATMs in Southeast Wisco, so when people went to the ATM they'd say "I'm going to the Tyme Machine."

"Dookies" as in Nike Air Force 1's.

"On The G" as in "I Swear to God/goodness."

"Stop and Go Lights" for traffic lights.

And, of course, saying "Soda" instead of "Pop" (unlike most of the Midwest).

I used 1, 4, and 5, but I only still use #5.

[Ralph Shinners]

Yeah it seems to me that the Tyme machine term is starting to fade from use.

[rbehs]

The word "aina." For some reason I associate it with the Luxemburgers in Port Washington, but don't know if that's correct.

[ram2]

Originally Posted by Ralph Shinners

My parents have always said when they first moved to Milwaukee in the mid '60's they found it amusing some of unique turn of phrases that older Milwaukeeans had at that time.

The only one I can recall is I thought they said people would say "going down by" rather than "going to" - so it would be "I'm going down by Schuster's."

Does anyone recall this or other distinctive phrases?

What about "driving by" aunt Mary's house instead of "driving to" aunt Mary's house.