Are there funny or strange sayings that you remember from one of your relatives, or from your childhood??? My sweet Daddy (who died in 1969) used to always say if anyone asked how he was, "I'm just finer than frog hair"..... I used to think that was so funny ---but I never did know where he got that expression. Years later, long after he died, I read that expression on a list of old sayings.... SO---I guess it didn't originate with him (like I thought it had). But all of through the years, I gave him credit for saying something so funny ---and yet strange.... (How fine is frog hair anyhow??????)
My friend GINNY from Virginia was talking in her blog yesterday about SALT... I had to tell her about another of these old sayings: "Throw salt over your shoulder for good luck". Have you heard that one???? Anyhow, her blog made me start thinking about all of these old sayings, many of which I have heard, off and on all of my life... SO---I thought I'd share a few of them with you today. I'm sure you can add some to this group, and I hope you do....
1. "Flat as a Flitter" (What in the heck is a flitter???)
2. That's as "Fast as All-Get-Out" (I heard this one growing up also...)
3. Here's a funny one: "If things get any better, I may have to hire someone to help me enjoy it."
4. "You look like somethin' the cat dragged in."
5. "Now---that's a fine how-do-you-do!!!"
6. "He was movin' so slow, dead flies wouldn't fall off 'im."
7. "I'm gonna slap you so hard, when you quit rollin' your clothes will be outta style."
9. "I'm as mad as a mule chewin' on bumblebees." (Yipes)
10. This one is BAD... Sorry!!!! "She's so ugly they had to tie a pork chop around her neck to get the dog to play with her."
11. Are you ever THIS busy? "Busy as a stump-tailed cow in fly time"
12. And my fav: "Well----butter my butt and call me a biscuit"..... ha ha ha
NOW---tell me some of your favorite old sayings!!!!
Hope you had a great weekend.
Hugs,
P.S. All pictures today came from the internet!!!
58 comments:
Not only have I heard them, I SAY most of them:)
betsy, i love this layout..fonts are bigger and easy to read..
This is an interesting post and I learnt quite a few new idioms. My favourites are the ones used to describe a crazy person. i do crazy things so my aunts and uncles used to call me that way ha..ha..
E.g.
Mad as a hatter - probably derived from 'Alice in Wonderland'
He is Gone Doolally- Doolally is a little town in India. I think there was a lunatic asylum there in the olden days..
Well coming from down under there are quite a few I've not heard before but some I have. They are funny and the list could be endless. When I first met Bill and he was still learning English we had fun telling each other our different country's sayings. Some of the Swiss ones sounded hilarious when translated. One is; when you bite into something sower they say: OOOOH it pulls your holes together. (Because you screw up your eyes and purse your mouth and you can imagine the rest) he he he.
I have said and used at least half of these myself.
Did your dad or mom, though I only remember my dad saying this: If you don't behave I'm gonna raise some came--meaning we were headed for a whipping.
My boss had one that she got from her grandmother:
Sit down and rest your neck and ears.
I have never heard that one any where else, though it often crosses my mind now.
I know there are others but it is too early in the morn for me to think clearly.
Heehee...these are great, Betsy! Having lived in the South all my life, I'ver either heard or said most of those you list. Some others: "Busier than a one-armed paperhanger" "Busier than a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest" And many, many more... (some of which are a bit naughty!)
I love being a Southerner.
Haha...you have some good sayings here. My dad said this when I was a little girl. It made me laugh..."Tastes so good it makes my tongue slap my brain out!"
I've always heard the quote, "Flat as a Fritter" which made me think of corn fritters?
Indeed, as a Southerner, we hear so many fun sayings!
My third grade teacher used to say, "Gosh oh hemlock" and "Ye gods and small fishes!" LOL!
Betsy, I love these funny old sayings. My favorite is the last one, its a new one to me. My Granddad use to say, He’s about as handy as a back pocket on a shirt.
Thanks your my morning smile :)
These old sayings are always funny to me. As you can imagine, Jeep is full of these. Two of my favorites that I hear him say are:
“Cold as a Witches Tit”
“As useless as tits on a boar hog!”
Do you see a pattern there? ☺
Have a happy new week!!!
Thanks for giving me a mention on your blog! I have heard only about half of these, some are wild! One that I hadn't heard till I met my daughter-in-law was "He was really BOOKIN', meaning running real fast, usually to get away from something. I think it's a southern thing. And to RED out a drawer or the house, to neaten it up. I've only heard Phil and one other person say this "WELL,I SWANNEE", which means my goodness gracious! Then there's "He doesn't have the sense he waa born with" The two cute verses you wrote on my salt post, I've never heard them. But I do know about throwing salt over your shoulder, my family did it all the time. And I hated it, because I was a very neat little girl! I know the phrase neat child is probably an oxymoron! But you called me Ginny Pooh, I must ask you about it. It is so sweet and brought back memories. My mom used to call me that all the time, which she later shortened to The Pooh, and so did Phil for many years of our early marriage.
I've heard some of those old sayings Betsy but not all of them.
One of my favorites was when parents used to say "Stop crying or I'll give you something to cry about!" Hahaha!!! Does anyone use that saying any more? Too funny!
Hope you have a wonderful day friend!
xo Catherine
Sure heard some new funny stuff here today. Thanks.
My Mom used to say "this is as frustrating as a cat with diarrhea on a concrete floor."
Guess I never really paid close attention to those kinds of sayings - I was used to hearing...
"Wait till your father get's home" or "When you grow up I hope you have a child just like you"
Not very funny, but heard over and over again!
Hey girl, I have heard almost all of these except the one that is your favorite. That is a new one on me.
I love old handed down sayings. I've got a few in my line though that I can't repeat on a public forum because no one would understand them like I do. It was just 'them' and anybody else saying the same thing it would sound terrible. Sounds stupid but hey...sometimes things are just 'relative'. :)))
What a fun post Betsy.
One I hear a lot is "Happy as a clam." I'm not sure how you know when a clam is happy -ha!
My Grandmother used to say, "Chuffed as a badger."
My Son says, "As funny as a screen door on a submarine."
I could go on and on...but I won't! LOL
Sunny :)
I loved all those sayings Betsy!!! I've also wondered about their origins also..
My father who is from Texas, has a lot of quaint old sayings.
"You haven't got enough sense to come in out of the rain." and "Just sitting around like a bump on a log." Are two I remember.
Marnie
Those are funny.
What, your parents never threatened to shank you??? :)
My dad had a lot of silly sayings...but most I can't write about!!!
i reconize almost all of them and thanks for the smile. when I would say to my mother, I wish I was or wish I had, she would say
"and if a frog had legs it would not bump its butt when it hopped"
in other words, Wish ON
Because these sayings conjure up a silly picture they are funny. I have a few 'literal' peeps in my family and they wouldn't think of them as funny! It's really funny to watch their expression when they 'don't get it', LOL!!
My dad's was also, "stop crying, or I'll give you something to cry about," and mom's was 'wait until your dad gets home."
About a lazy person it would be, "He's as slow as molasses in winter."
Had a friend, who when surprised, said, "Heavens to Betsy."
These were fun! Have a great day!
These are fun! I still think of this one so often, but don't actually say it.."If the good Lord's willing and the creek don't rise".
I feel like a creek rose these past two days... has been nothing but a slow rain...everything is wet, wet, wet...kinda nice actually!!!
Betsy: Those were some fun saying. Here's one, "The apple doesn't far to far from the tree" and "You are what you eat".
I used to work with a woman who was always finer than frog hair. Every now and then I stumble across the original of some sayings and always facinated by where they came from.
Might be time to go "Cow Tipping"
Thanks Betsy for giving me a good laugh this morning!
How about "You look like you was rode hard and put away wet".
Oh, this is a fun post today, Betsy. I remember some of those sayings.
The one that always got me..my mother would say "well, what the sam hill!!" I always wondered what that meant.
The ones my dad said are best not repeated here, but they were very colorful.
And then there was the one Moms Mayblee would say - "U...g...l...y, he was so ugly he'd make a train take a dirt road........on a rainy night!
Diane
My friend always says 'Fine as frog hair' and also
Happier than a clam at high tide. HAHA MB
What a fun post Betsy...Pa had many, like, if he saw a skunk, he and his old-timer friends would call them'a two-toned pussy with fluid drive', or if asked how he was doing, he'd say Fine as frogshair in the wintertime., meaning Pretty fine.
It's so dry, the creek is only running every other day.
or about being nervous,
He's as nervous as a cat in a room full of rockers.
Not the brightest bulb in the box. or
I need to wet my whistle.
or
Slower than 'lassas in January
or
It's a 'garden rain'...meaning a slow, steady warm rainfall.
or
He's deader than a doornail. My grandson just said that about a bug., so I guess he heard us say it.
or
He's gonna eat some crow...meaning, eat his words, or regret what was said about being wrong.
BlessYerHeartBFF
Grandpa always said "If I was any better I'd be having a run-away!"
Very interesting post Billy Bob.
Here's an old one
"A stitch in time"
"codswollop"
"Mad as a Hatter" - thats me lol.
A penny saved is a penny earned is a good one. And, I am one of those people who will bend to pick up a penny that someone else has tossed away!
You are 'crazy as a sprayed roach.'
Betsy, How fun. I've head most of these. You know Southerners have a way with words.
When my Granddaddy was still alive I'd go to see him and ask."Grandaddy how are you." He'd say "kickin but not high". I'll always remember that.
Thanks for the smile today.
♥ Joy
Love your fun post today! I've never heard the frog's hair idiom, but some of them are familiar to me.
"Mad as a wet hen" or "mad as a hornet" were used when I was growing up. And I still find myself saying, "I'm fixin' to go . . . "
I can think of 2 from when I was a child.
My dad would say "stop crying or I'll give you something to cry about".
My mom would say "eat this, it will stick to your ribs".
Sorry,I have nothing to add right now.These are funny,thanks for the smiles.
Blessings,Ruth
I think Southerners use many more cute expressions than Northerners do.
My Dad use to always say "Thatand 15 cents will get you on the subway " (of course now it would be $2.25!..lol!) I guess he meant that fanciful things weren't as important as practical things.
Both of my parents used the "Money does not grow on trees" saying quite a bit.
When I was in elementary school we would have to memorize a proverb every now and then as part of our lessons and they always confused me as they didn't amke sense at the time. Ones like " A stitch in time saves nine" or "A penny saved is a penny earned"
or "Penny wise, pound foolish" Of course NOW I know what they all mean ..and they are so true!
I have heard some of these and some I couldn't write down. "Hotter than a cat on a hot tin roof," is about as clean as it gets. Thanks for visiting.
I've used several of these listed over the years, some of them everyday.
My dad used to like to take a nap, he'd say he was checking the insides of his eyelids :)
Also "Slap my thigh and call me Nancy" was a common one used in England.
A fun post Betsy, I'm sure I'll think of more as soon as I close the comment box :)
Another; "Well I'll be a monkeys uncle "
"Now don't that just butter your grits."
Very funny post Betsy. How about - That's about as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike.
I remember most all of these saying.One other one I remember was kind of tacky..... (wish in one hand **** in the other see which one gets the fullest).
You really don't know what a fritter is? I am shocked, because you probably have eat them before. It looks like a pancake but it is made from cornbread mix. I have even had some made from leftover mashed potatoes.
Thanks, Betsy! I really enjoyed this post and reading all the replies.
Oops, Betsy, my mistake. I have always heard it as fritter instead of flitter. Maybe they thought a fritter was a flitter. LOL
Being a Southern girl I have heard most all of those. I too have always heard it as Fritter, which would be like saying "flat as a pancake".
Gully-washer and Toe-strangler for a heavy rain.
I do declare!
He ran like his britches was on fire!
Hugs,
Judy
Those were fun to read, Betsy!
These were great, Betsy...and funny!
My mom used to say when she saw a really skinny woman:
"If she drank red kookaide and turned sideways, she'd look like a thermometer."
Don't ask me WHERE she heard that one! ha
Fun post, Betsy! I never heard "Flat as a Flitter" but it reminded me of "Fit as a Fiddle." :)
I liked this post, Betsy. This was fun! My mom used to say the finer than frog hair line too.
What a fun post Betsy,thanks for the memories,I've heard all of these and the one I heard most from my dad was "want in one hand and s___ in the other and she which one gets full first" and " wouldn't that just dunk your hat in the creek" ,I could go on and on,like I said thanks for the memories. Have a blessed tomorrow.
Marilyn
I have heard some of these. Too funny...m...
I've heard most of these all my life Betsy. If it wasn't so late I'd call my Mom to ask her and my Stepdad some good ones. :)
Have you ever heard - Go pay the duns? My Dad used to say it. He meant he was going in to town to pay the bills. Coming back from the mailbox he might also say 'got nothing but duns.'
The funniest I ever heard was being in the backseat of my Aunt's car when I was about eight and a slow car was in front of her. She said aloud -'Pee or get off the pot.' I never laughed so hard and she laughed at me cause I had never heard it.
I only know 4 and 5, Betsy. But had a good laugh. I love the photos of the cat and the horse! I'm trying to think of a few this side of the globe. They'll come back to me soon. BTW I LOVE your dad's expression. Have a wonderful day. (((Hugs))) Jo
After reading your post yesterday, all that kept going through my mind were old sayings! One that my father used a lot was, "Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle!"
There's more but I'll shut up! LOL
Sunny :)
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