Tighten Up Every Chance You Get
By Brother Rogers
We Southerners have a unique way of expressing ourselves. At least, that’s what they say when I visit other places and use a Southern witticism or colloquial expression. Most of these I picked up from my family, but I borrowed a few colorful sayings from friends.
They’ve entered my everyday language, even though I have been warned that drifting into the vernacular might convey a lack of erudition to the cognoscenti. Others may make fun of the way we Southerners speak, but as one Southerner put it, “We burn way too much energy bristling at the barbs and pouting over the punch lines.” Better to celebrate the difference.
Usually there is humor in our expressions as demonstrated by Bugs Bunny in an episode called “Southern Fried Rabbit.” When Bugs crosses the border from the desolate North into the verdant South, he exclaims, “Well shut my mouth and call me corn pone!” As comedian Larry the Cable Guy says, “I don’t care who you are, that’s funny!”
One of my favorite original Southern expressions is one I quote often when I see something I want. About 20 years ago, I wore a new pair of boots to a wedding (for the first and last time). A friend from Arkansas envied the boots and expressed himself this way, “Haw, Brother, you done flung a cravin’ on me.” Even the late Jerry Clower couldn’t have improved on that phrasing.
My college roommate from Alabama used several sayings that I still repeat. After a good meal, he would pat his belly and announce, “It wadn’t just good. It was good-to-me!” He used to quote his father, who would tell him as a child, “You can get glad in them same britches you got mad in.”
My father uses colloquialisms that I copy as well. He used to call before he was going boating on a leisurely afternoon, and of course I was too busy to go. He’d say, “We’ll have a moment of silence for you, but not a long one.” He also would comment on my being busy by saying, “You’re a hard dog to keep under the porch.”
When I was a child, my dad would often use the saying “like Ned in the Primer,” a reference to the character Ned from the first books children learn to read. Ned must have been slow and a bit lazy. To wit, my dad might say, “Don’t just sit there like Ned in the primer, go outside and play.”
My dad has another saying he uses whenever people from out-of-state visit him. I used it just last week when a business associate from New Jersey told me she wanted to come to Mississippi. “We’ll treat you so many different ways, you’re bound to like some of ‘em,” I told her. She still plans to come.
I probably quote my uncle the most. He has a witticism that aptly describes people who are so set in their ways, that no amount of new information or indisputable facts will budge them from their original position. My uncle expresses that it is a waste of time to argue with such people by repeating a saying he heard, “It’s like trying to teach a pig to sing. It wears you out and it annoys the pig.”
Some sayings sound good when they flow off the tongue, but who knows what they really mean. My dad uses two colorful expressions when I am leaving his house or about to say goodbye on the telephone: “Tighten up every chance you get,” or more frequently, “Let the slick end slide and the rough end drag.” If you have a favorite Southern expression in your family, please send it to me to publish in a future column.
Brother Rogers is a guest columnist who works at the Stennis Center for Public Service in Starkville. He can be reached at [email protected].
We Southerners have a unique way of expressing ourselves. At least, that’s what they say when I visit other places and use a Southern witticism or colloquial expression. Most of these I picked up from my family, but I borrowed a few colorful sayings from friends.
They’ve entered my everyday language, even though I have been warned that drifting into the vernacular might convey a lack of erudition to the cognoscenti. Others may make fun of the way we Southerners speak, but as one Southerner put it, “We burn way too much energy bristling at the barbs and pouting over the punch lines.” Better to celebrate the difference.
Usually there is humor in our expressions as demonstrated by Bugs Bunny in an episode called “Southern Fried Rabbit.” When Bugs crosses the border from the desolate North into the verdant South, he exclaims, “Well shut my mouth and call me corn pone!” As comedian Larry the Cable Guy says, “I don’t care who you are, that’s funny!”
One of my favorite original Southern expressions is one I quote often when I see something I want. About 20 years ago, I wore a new pair of boots to a wedding (for the first and last time). A friend from Arkansas envied the boots and expressed himself this way, “Haw, Brother, you done flung a cravin’ on me.” Even the late Jerry Clower couldn’t have improved on that phrasing.
My college roommate from Alabama used several sayings that I still repeat. After a good meal, he would pat his belly and announce, “It wadn’t just good. It was good-to-me!” He used to quote his father, who would tell him as a child, “You can get glad in them same britches you got mad in.”
My father uses colloquialisms that I copy as well. He used to call before he was going boating on a leisurely afternoon, and of course I was too busy to go. He’d say, “We’ll have a moment of silence for you, but not a long one.” He also would comment on my being busy by saying, “You’re a hard dog to keep under the porch.”
When I was a child, my dad would often use the saying “like Ned in the Primer,” a reference to the character Ned from the first books children learn to read. Ned must have been slow and a bit lazy. To wit, my dad might say, “Don’t just sit there like Ned in the primer, go outside and play.”
My dad has another saying he uses whenever people from out-of-state visit him. I used it just last week when a business associate from New Jersey told me she wanted to come to Mississippi. “We’ll treat you so many different ways, you’re bound to like some of ‘em,” I told her. She still plans to come.
I probably quote my uncle the most. He has a witticism that aptly describes people who are so set in their ways, that no amount of new information or indisputable facts will budge them from their original position. My uncle expresses that it is a waste of time to argue with such people by repeating a saying he heard, “It’s like trying to teach a pig to sing. It wears you out and it annoys the pig.”
Some sayings sound good when they flow off the tongue, but who knows what they really mean. My dad uses two colorful expressions when I am leaving his house or about to say goodbye on the telephone: “Tighten up every chance you get,” or more frequently, “Let the slick end slide and the rough end drag.” If you have a favorite Southern expression in your family, please send it to me to publish in a future column.
Brother Rogers is a guest columnist who works at the Stennis Center for Public Service in Starkville. He can be reached at [email protected].