When in the south talk like 'em. I'm learning how to do that. First time I heard "j'eat yet", I definitely didn't know what was being said. Non-southerner here, believe me.
Then I began to catch on. It meant "Did you eat yet". Of course that was what was being said. Only it was in what I call "mouth shorthand".
I knew what "y'all" meant but, when I heard "chugged full", I was baffled. What the heck does that mean? I had to ask the person who was talking as soon as she got done flapping her gums. I casually said, "what the heck does "chugged full"" mean? She told me it means full and overflowing. Well of course it does.....when she first said it, she was filling my water glass and said "if I don't watch it, it will be "chugged full".
One day, in 98 degree weather, and while I was in the lobby of a building, a nice lady was "goin on" about this and that. The door kept opening and closing and "leaving in" (as she said) hot air. All at once she said I wish they would "close the newmonina hole". What??????????? I was so shocked I know my eyes must have been about as big as silver dollars. So she said...honey haven't you ever heard that? NOOOOOOOOOO I haven't. She said it means I wish they would close the door. OMG .... I figured it had something to do with shutting the door, but I sure as heck wasn't going to get "Newmonia" in 98 degree weather. But she was right.....I wish they would close the door as it was making me hot....but I didn't get "Newmonia" thank goodness.
Through the days, I also heard "well hush my mouth"; "sorry as a two dollar watch" (hey watch that .... I bought the cutest watch for not too much more than two dollars); "on me like white on rice"; awfullest"; "didja"; "crookeder"; "matoes"; "taters"; "tal" (which I think was towel); and "hankering". One time I asked about ordering some flowers and the clerk kept saying something about the "floors"....I gave up, as I sure didn't want a bunch of floors being sent instead of the flowers I meant to send.
Then came the very best mouth shorthand I heard on my road to discovery of southern "twang lang" (which is the term I've coined to mean the voice of the south). I was sitting by a nice lady who said she wasn't feeling well. I offered to call someone but she said no she would be ok. All at once she said the heat was making her feel badly and she was a dizzy as a bessy bug. To me that meant she must be pretty dizzy because if she's likening it to a bug, it had to be bad. From previous experience with bugs in the south, I knew I had heard references to a beetle that was called the Betsy Bug. So, I knew that woman was really feeling dizzy because those Betsy Bugs are huge and ugly with a thingy on the front that looks like a horn.
More than once, the following was said to me "you must be from the north". Yes I am from the north came the response from me.... but I went on to clarify that I sure wished I was from the south. So from now on I will have to claim ...... "American by birth - southern by the grace of God". And, I will leave it at that. Have to leave now and find some vittles as I really have a hankering for a big piece of old southern pecan (spoken with a long "e") pie and tater salad with a big slab of fried catfish with a toppin of remoulade sauce. Yummee.
I bet when I left the south, my new southern friends probably were talking about my northern accent and I was probably called a Redneck more than once. And, because I kept asking questions like "Huh?", I was probably labeled as one who doesn't have a lick of good sense or at least that I was so dumb that my brother-in-law was probably also my uncle. And, they probably think that all of the Lite/Lower Fat Spam I've eaten over the years has caused cholesterol buildup in my brain veins and has caused me to be unable to understand "God's" language for the south.
Ya gotta love that twang lang y'all. I'm gonna learnt that twang lang as soon as I can.
Old Time Stuff
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Petersburg - Harris Opera House
Petersburg - Market Day Around the Square
Greenview - Marbold House with family in the yard
Springfield - Champion Gas Station.
Unknown location at this time.
Quote For The Day
The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work
--Harry Golden
Greenview Fall Garage Sales
Fall town wide garage sales are October 6 from 8 am to 1 pm.
Death
Wayne Hohimer passed away on August 30. He was born April 29, 1923. He is survived by his wife Eloise, and daughters Karen Setzer and Shelly Cassen of Greenview; daughter-in-law Sheila Hohimer of Springfield; nine grandchildren; thirteen great grandchildren; and one sister, Shirley Milas of Lockport.
Once upon a time I thought about writing a book of poetry. The thought went around and around in my mind and then I threw that silly idea out the window and decided that I wasn't ready to write a book of poems which most people wouldn't understand. My problem is that people are always trying to determine what an author means with every word written.
I remember back to my high school years when we were given a poem and then told to write about what it meant. My mind always went blank. How would I know what the author meant when he himself might not have known what he meant. An author sometimes just writes what comes to mind with no thought to what he/she actually means.
It seems that every teacher I always had knew exactly what the author meant. This was before I became wise and found out that the interpretation was the teacher's own interpretation of what it meant.....and when I wrote what I thought it meant, it never jived with the teacher. Then I had a college instructor who put our class wise on interpretations and how authors sometimes never think about what the passage means...they just write. And he also told us that just because a teacher has an interpretation of what it means doesn't mean that's what it meant. Dang it....I always wrote down my interpretation for my high school teacher and I probably could have passed those classes after all.
So now I write for fun and who the heck cares what it means. Sometimes I write random thoughts and most of the time these make sense .... but sometimes they don't make a lick of sense and are dumb besides. Guess that's why I haven't yet decided to write my book of poetry or even finish my unfinished novel which was started long ago and is still waiting for my next thoughts. Perhaps one day I will get the urge to write poetry and finish the novel. But maybe I won't. For now, I'll just continue to bore my readers on this blog with my whimsical words of wisdom....I think that's what they are.
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Hope to see you again soon ya'll!
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