“You catch more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.”
What a beautiful day it is. The sun is hot, and the breeze, dare I say the wind, is keeping down the humidity moving in ahead of tomorrow’s rain. It is 76˚.
In a movie I watched lately, I heard the police officer say, “It’s your dime.” I am part of a generation which understands that allusion. My mother and my aunt used to call the family whiners sorrowful mysteries. My grandnephew Jack was the last to wear the mantle. I wonder how many of my family knows the source. It is part of the Catholic rosary.
My father had peculiarities. The dry cleaner is a cleanser. Some Saturday’s he went to Woburn, the next town over, to go the packie. My town was dry, no booze was sold, but conveniently, that packie was maybe 10 minutes away. He always said down cellar, not down the cellar, and so do we. The remote control was always the clicker. He never said wicked, that belongs to a younger generation.
Two incorrect grammatical constructs are common here. As a former English teacher, I wince when I hear them. The first is, “so don’t I!” as in I love vanilla ice cream. So don’t I. Then there’s the ever popular, “She don’t or he don’t”
My mother was the idiom queen. I think she got a degree from some obscure college which caters only to mothers. “Because I said so,” was supposed to stop us in our tracks. It didn’t. No, I wasn’t born in a barn, and I didn’t go blind sitting too close to the TV despite repeated warnings.
My father was threatening, “Don’t make me turn this car around.” He also employed the old, “Stop crying before I give you something to cry about,” but he never did turn the car around or make us stop crying.
The end of childhood doesn’t come easily. Santa and the Easter Bunny disappear. I missed Santa the most. I still got my basket compliments of my mother who was as renown for her Easter baskets as she was for her Christmas stockings, but I liked the idea of a rabbit.
I believe the exact end of childhood happened when I knew my mother was making it all up. All those warnings about beaches and eating, wet hair, wearing a hat and eatings carrot were concerns about our health. None of them were real. They were loving.
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May 28, 2020 at 6:18 pm
Santa, Easter bunny, … May I introduce the Pentecost Ox?
It was a now gone tradition to decorate the cattle or at least the strongest ox when the cattle is led to the field in a parade for the first time in spring. In many regions this happened at Pentecost.
Now the term Pentecost Ox is used when a man is way too overdressed. It only applies to men so don’t worry when you wear your beautiful fascinator 😉
May 28, 2020 at 6:50 pm
Birgit,
I never heard of the Pentecost Ox, but I do have memories of pictures of oxen in a parade, and their horns were beautifully decorated with flowers. The girls with them were also wearing flowers and traditional costumes.
In English we say dressed to the nines to describe a snappy dresser. I once looked that up, and no one knows the exact origin of the nines.
May 28, 2020 at 8:36 pm
Hi Kat,
My parents used all of those threats as well as those “Old wives tales” and they didn’t work on us either. My father traveled about half the year from Mondays through Fridays. My mother used to threaten us with, “Just you wait until your father comes home on Friday”. It didn’t even work on Thursday. 🙂
Every part of the country has their own regional words and phrases. The one Texas word that I use is, “fixin’ to”, which translates to “Getting ready”, “I’m fixin’ to go to the store”. I try to not say other Texas expressions, such as piece, “It’s down the road a piece”. The answer to how far is, “It’s a fur piece” which doesn’t refer to an animal skin. 🙂 Or, “Pitch a hissy fit” for a temper tantrum.
Today was again hot, humid and partly cloudy.
May 28, 2020 at 9:28 pm
Hi Bob,
When I was in high school, my father was transferred to Maine. He stayed there all week and then flew home every weekend. My mother often threatened us with our father. We always figured Friday was a long way away.
May 28, 2020 at 10:26 pm
Mothers all have gone to the same university of guilt. 🙂
May 28, 2020 at 10:42 pm
Definitely true!