Every so often when I am out in public I see a young parent arguing with her toddler and I am astounded. My parents didn't argue with us when my brother and I were growing up! They laid down the law and we followed it. Period. There were no negotiations. "Backtalk" was simply not allowed.
It was a different world.
This is not a post about disciplining children, though. No, I was thinking more about how much language has changed, just in my lifetime.
My dad had his own little peculiar expressions he liked to use - my favorite being "if that ain't good, grits ain't groceries."
I was thinking more about Mom. She had her own expressions and her own superstitions. I wanted to write down those here, so as not to forget.
"I better not hear any backtalk" meant don't even open your mouth. You never argued. You never contradicted. If mama or daddy said do it, you did it.
"Find something to do or I will find you something" meant basically I don't care if you're bored. If you whine about being bored I will have you cleaning the house until you collapse! My mother was not an activities director. I learned to fill long boring summer days with playing or reading.
"Go cut me a little switch" meant go out in the yard and select a small branch of a shrub or tree and cut it off and bring it to me so I can whip your butt with it. Children today will never know the quandary. Choose wrong and SHE would go out there and cut something that would make the sword of Zorro seem like a bread knife.
As I got older, I started noticing other expressions she used.
"Bad things come in threes." Any celebrity death was sure to be followed in short order by two other deaths. I remember being skeptical about this one. Between August and October of 1977 the world lost Elvis Pressley, Bing Crosby, and Groucho Marx -- making me a firm believer in Mom's "bad things" pronouncements, although they were not limited to celebrity deaths.
"My nose itches. Somebody's coming to visit." This, too, was true, generally. Not always. However, there was another saying that went along with it "If I drop the dishtowel it's a certainty." Somehow, she was usually right about that. Of course, a neighbor dropping by counted, as did a stray dog wandering into the yard.
"Don't be a fair weather friend" meant be loyal to your friends, neighbors, teammates, etc. It was the morally correct way to be.
"You have to try a bite." My parents never forced us to eat food we didn't like but we had to try a bite, which is a good rule for life. Don't say you don't like something you've never even tried.
"He/she wasn't raised right." A person not raised right was to be pitied because they didn't use good manners. Anyone exhibiting bad manners was an instant pariah at my house, unless we were talking about a young child -- then it was the parents' fault. You have to raise a child right - teach them manners.
"She looks like a prostitute." In other words, the lady was wearing scandalously revealing clothing. Too much cleavage. Skirt too short. Too much makeup. I learned the word "prostitute" early but I had no real understanding of it for years. I just knew it was a bad woman, who didn't know how to dress properly. Mother inspected every outfit I ever wore and if I heard "You look like a prostitute!" I knew to get back to my room and change clothes quick!
"You better skedaddle" meant basically get your butt moving! You don't hear "skedaddle" much any more.
"Bottom" meant any part of the male or female genitalia and was as biologically accurate as Mom got. The correct words like "vagina" and "penis" were not okay to use. If one had to refer to that part of the body one merely said "bottom." Mom really didn't want to ever hear the correct words. When I adopted my son, he was the only male in the house. We rarely ever had to refer to it but if we did, his private area was known as "Mr. Happy." My daughter thought it was hilarious...
"Grunt grunt" and "tee tee" or "tinkle" were the family words for poop and pee. I never used other words [around my parents] until after I was grown. It was also okay to just say "use the bathroom." Mom told me once that when she and Dad were on their honeymoon and talking about having kids they had a big discussion about what words the future kids would use for poop and pee. [As you can tell I prefer "poop" and "pee" because I like to be simple and accurate...] As far as I know "grunt grunt" was something my dad came up with..
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