Family sayings

I guess all families have sayings that are part of their families talk around the table and elsewhere.

With out family, it starts with prayer. When I was little, and my brothers and sister were little, we said "grace" at each meal. The little prayer we said, depending on whose turn it was went like this: "Thank you Jesus for this food, Amen." In school we learned and actually said as a class: "God is great, God is good, and we thank him for this food. Amen." (We also said the "Lord's Prayer" everyday until I went to high school and the US Supreme Court said it was illegal.) Dad's favorite was: "Come Lord Jesus, and be our guest, and let this food to us be blessed. Amen." Of course, as I've already told you, that one wasn't good enough for Thanksgiving! I guess he was hungrier at home, than at Thanksgiving.

You know how people say, "God bless you" when you sneeze? Well, dad always said, "Dio ti benedica" (that's Italian) and he pronounced it: dee ah duh benna deech. One day when I was working at Answers in Genesis, a co-worker, who was a former missionary to Italy and who spent many of his formative years in Italy because his dad was employed there, said, "You're from south Italy?" I said, "Abruzzi," which on the southern coast. He said I had it exactly right. Well, dad had learned it from my Grandmother, Santa, mom's mother. So, we, or at least I, picked it up.

When we had a belly ache, or heartburn, we'd say the "agita" was bothering us. I saw a movie about Italian-Americans and the mom was always complaining about "agita" in that movie. I thought, ah, another word from my youth!

Dad would hide on his hands and knees behind the door way that led into the kitchen, and when we came out of the kitchen he would jump out and yell, "hood-gee, bood-gee" -- haven't a clue how to spell that one. It was a game he played with us. We knew it was coming, too, but he always surprised us with it because he didn't always do that.

Another saying that my dad was famous for was "such crust" meaning, "Well, I never..."

Mom's favorite, I think was, "Stupid, stupid, stupid" -- three stupids in a row. I guess that was supposed to accentuate the stupidity of something she or we did that wasn't exactly smart.
The last time my mom said that was when she was just a few days away from going to be with our Lord. Now, she had no strength whatsoever, and probably weighed no more than 70 pounds at the time. She sat on the edge of the bed. And then promptly slid onto the floor. Well, my sister-in-law, Sue, and I were in the room at the time, and we got to giggling, because as soon as mom slid onto the floor, she said, "Stupid, stupid, stupid." Even at her reduced weight, both Sue and I, because we were laughing (which we really shouldn't have been, I suppose) had a very difficult time lifting mom back onto the bed. As I sit here writing this and recalling that I'm chuckling out loud. Maybe it's that happy when we're miserable thing?

Another favorite expression of my mom's and mine was "That was a stupid ending." We would say that when a movie we were watching on TV didn't end the way we wanted it to, or when a movie ended and we were both crying because it was such a sad or beautiful ending. My daughter and I shortened it to "stupid movie" anytime we are moved to tears during a movie.

I have an expression, which I can't credit my mother or father with, but a movie is rated by how many hankies are needed during the viewing of it. If I cry once, it's a one-hankie. Some movies, like Out of Africa are 15-hankie movies.

In the 50s an expression we all used was "George", not "by george, just George. I think it was used instead of saying "That's great." Something was "george" if it was good.

Thought of another one: "blast, dash-darn, confound" an expression used instead of a four-letter word that starts with a "d" and ends with an "n" and has "am" in the middle. A good expression to use when you hit your thumb with a hammer, or can't find something in the junk drawer (another good topic for this BLOG), or you slip on the ice and fall down, etc.

Another one: Fit to be tied. Done know what it really means except that when one is "fit to be tied" they are full of angst, not angry really, but frustrated because they are tied up and can't get relief from the problem that causes them to be "fit to be tied."

Here's another one -- F H B -- yes, three letters. They stand for "family hold back". Dad used to say that when someone was taking too many cookies, or too much salad, or if one of us wanted more than we should, or if there just wasn't enough to go around unless we all held back a bit. I used that expression on my husband the other night. He hadn't a clue what I was talking about. I had put out for eating whenever Christmas cookies and candies. Not a good thing to do, but it is Christmas after all. Alan asked if he could have any of the sweets and I said he could but he needed to FHB on them. I explained that he could have four cookies not a handful, and he could take three or four pieces of candy, not a handful. Moderation -- that's what it means -- do what you're doing in moderation!

It's the middle of December and I'm adding to this post (2007). I was visiting my daughter the other day, and I had a card-making learning session for about 12 home-schoolers. Well, when we finally finished, I said to my daughter -- "Boy, this table is really verschimmelt, isn't it?" The word verschimmelt just popped out -- it means messed up, cluttered, things in disarray. My dad used it all the time when the dining room table was messed up, or my hair wasn't combed. You get the picture. So, add verschimmelt to the list of family sayings. This is a German-spelling for a word that was as close as I could get to what we always pronounced as fur shimmled. It means, if you believe this, moldy! Not how we used it. I'll keep searching through the German dictionary and see if I can find something else that comes close.

And while we're in the German vein -- what about mach schnell -- dad would use those words when we were dragging out feet -- it means get a move on it!

Two other "germanic" expressions my father used from time to time. One I could find in a German dictionary, the other I couldn't find anything that even remotely resembled the word, so I won't list it until I can find something that is close. One of the other expressions we grew up with was schlecht which had to do with junk food. Well, in German is has to do with evil, or no good and is used as an adjective. The adverb schlecht just means badly. So in tell us not to eat so much schlecht I guess dad was telling us to not eat so much junk.

There was another word dad used to denote the stuff that comes out of ones nose -- snot, boogers -- he called it bachtse -- not sure of that spelling since I can't find anything that even remotely resembles that word by looking up snot or boogers. If and when I get the correct word, I'll let you know.

My husband reminded me of another saying. We were watching two really old movies on TV and one was The White Cliffs of Dover -- don't watch it without at least a box of kleenexes. The beginning is actually quite humorous. Anyway, one of my father's favorite sayings was: The poor guy when referring to someone who was being harassed or annoyed or made fun of. You kids remember that?

More Germanic words I remember: scheusslich (hoosh lick) is the spelling the German translator gave me, and is as close as I can get to the way dad pronounced it, and it means appalling, dreadful. I thought it meant we were sloppy or doing something in an manner that was unbecoming, but the dictionary says otherwise. If we were doing our homework in a sloppy manner, he'd tell us not to be so scheusslich. Or if we were running around the dining room table, knocking things over, he tell us to not be so scheusslich.

A word used similarly is betrueblich which sounded like strueblich, which to us meant we needed to comb our hair. We weren't properly groomed. But the German dictionary says it means deplorable. I guess that's close enough. Dad would say we looked very strueblich and he meant we looked deplorable.

On my trip to Florida two expressions came out of my mouth and my cousin's mouth and then I remembered we used them prolifically when I was growing up. The first is capichi --we pronounced it cap eesch (accent on the second syllable) and it means, do you understand?

The second word was stupido meaning you're stupid or you did a stupid thing. I always thought it was Spanish, but then I realized it was part of my vocabulary before I had highschool Spanish.

Hold your horses -- another saying that dad and mom used when we children would get rambunctious and start running around the dining room table, chasing each other in order to influct harm. Hold your horses means slow it down, stop and think what you're doing.

Save the pieces -- I heard this saying at my granddaughter's birthday party and it clicked. My son-in-law was putting together one of the toys she received and was pounding the wheels of the toy shopping cart into place and his grandmother (Grinny Kuhlman) said, "Save the pieces." In other words, be careful what you do, and don't make so much noise doing it. I remember my mom and dad using that expression from time to time. This led to a conversation with Mrs. Kuhlman who insists it's a Kentucky saying. I insist it's Pennsylvania Dutch. Who knows? It isn't listed in the PD Idiom Dictionary or the Appalachian Sayings Dictionary.


If I think of more, I'll edit this BLOG. This particular edition has now been edited 9times.