The fact that we had a “blue moon” on New Year’s made me think of all the old sayings that I grew up hearing. Like a lot of people, my mother said, “once in a blue moon” many times over our years together, but she had many, many more idioms that are certainly less common. My favorite that she said often was “she drove her ducks to a muddy pond,” usually meaning that some girl had selected the wrong mate or made some other horribly bad decision. Then there were the miserly people that she said were “tight as Dick’s hatband” or “he was so tight he squeaked.”
Mother could be quite descriptive, and when she saw someone who looked particularly bad she would say he “looked like Hell smoked black.” By this and other similar quotes one could tell Mom grew up in a Baptist setting with quips like “he could eat Hell and drink Jordan dry.” See, you have to have a little Biblical understanding to get that one, don’t you think? She said that saying came about as a result of watching the circuit preacher eat the very best and last piece of chicken at Sunday dinner with her family (Sunday dinner meaning at noon) before he rode his horse to the next church along his route.
Mom would be 100 years old this year if she were still with us, so many of her memories were of very long ago and very interesting. Of course, now I wish I had listened more intently, but as she would say, “we live and learn.”
She also used some of the same idioms that many of us have heard most of our lives, but a few that she said the most were “he’s barking up the wrong tree”; “she was fixed in her ways”; he’s got a long row to hoe”; and “you just can’t change a dog’s spots.”
Mom, who could make a dollar go further than anyone I know, couldn’t understand parents who never gave their children a little money all along. To her it didn’t make sense to save it and leave it until you “were dead and gone.” And in her later years that became even more significant and important to her and dad. Both wanted to be certain that they were doing what they could for their kids and grandkids while they were alive.
As retired school teachers, that didn’t mean loads of money, but what they had earned, they wanted to share. Often Mother would put a twenty dollar bill in my hand as I was leaving after a visit, and when I protested, she would always come back with “I want to touch the palm I put it in” or “there are no pockets in a shroud.” To this day many years later, I remember the love in her eyes when she folded that bill and slipped it from her hand to mine. Her “actions spoke louder than words.”
But the one I heard most often when I was leaving for a date was, “pretty is as pretty does.” That one rings in my ears!!!
Now this all started with a “blue moon.” I hope you saw it and enjoyed it because there will not be another one until New Year’s 2028. In the meantime, Good Luck and God Bless, and please continue to follow my blogs in this new year.