General Chat

Mum. When someone was a snob.
She's all fur coat and no knickers.

Mum in law. When someone was mercinary.
She'd take your eyes, and then come back for the sockets.

You'll be laughing on the other side of your face



what DOES that mean? :-D

My Uncle's favourite phrase when he was running late was '6 o'clock and not a whore in the house painted ' :-D

I find it interesting that some of these sayings bring back memories such as, 'up the dancers'-'bone in my leg''laughing the other side of your face'. It would be interesting to know where we all live .i.e. north, south, etc to know if the sayings are a general thing or a local saying.

One my father used when annoyed at us,was to refer to 'South Shore tricks' As he was a coach driver in the late 1920's and took passengers to Blackpool every day working for the Progress buses I often wondered whether it was a phrase used in Blackpool, as there is a South Shore, or whether he associated it with something that happened at the time.-jl

Roy

My dad was always "off to see a man about a dog" I desperately wanted one and could never figure out why it was taking so long to get it.

When he was out too long my nan used to say "he's found himself a tart" and me in blissful childhood innocence "yes and hes sitting down to eat it" :-D

Our shoes always required a good "Spit and Polish" I guess that was military speak.

Referring to a local rogue my father would say "If that man ever shakes your hand count the fingers left on your hand"

Another one my mum used to say was
in for a pound in for a penny.

another one
up the swannie without a paddle

when it was time for bed .. it was
up the wooden hill

Elaine from up north in Yorkshire. it would be nice to know if the sayings are regional. ;-)

Mine are from South Yorkshire

Roy

how many of you screamed while your mother was getting the potatoes out of your ears?
:-D

One my grandmother often used when we asked questions about what something was .A wigwam for a gooses bridle .

Another possibley a ditty referring to blended families no doubt . My kids and your kids are fighting with our kids in the backyard .There was more and for years I've wondered how the rest finished .

When watching a love scene on tv, my Mum used to say

Ah love in the Four Ale Bar.


when a lady who was wearing too much make-up appeared,

She looks like a four-penny Ham bone.


:-D

a granny saying -

I'm as old as my tongue and a bit older than my teeth

If I wanted to know what the name of something was,and Mum didn't want to tell me,as I was being too inquisitive,she would say,"It's a wigwam for a goose's bridle,"which told me absolutely nothing!! :-S :-S

If Dad was telling his Mother a story,she would say,with eyes like saucers,"Go on!"

Edit: Sorry, June, didn't see your post! I'm in Australia,5th generation Aussie,that saying was probably originally from England.Assuming that you're from England,the sayings do get passed on through the generations! :-D :-D :-D

Some sayings seem to endure,from area to area,country to country with a
common cultural background,eg we still say,"I'm going to see a man about a dog," "He'll be laughing on the other side of his face..","Don't make faces or the wind might change", "Every man and his dog was there,""It's raining cats and dogs", etc... "She doesn't have a lazy bone in her body", "She would work in an iron lung",(referring to a very hard-working person,),Every Tom, Dick and Harry,"She can talk the leg off an iron pot," etc....I'm sure that there are heaps of others. :-) :-) :-)

Margot, in Australia.

Just remembered another one my mum used to say
if i was in a bad mood , she say mind you dont crack your face ,
and that always made me laugh .
Hazelx

Our gooses bridles have wimwoms.

Hi Margarett awasMargot
interesting have to say mosly Irish ,so I thought maybe the wigwam was Irish .But I have to say I 've heard all the others as well and as you say many more over the years .

I think its a shame our kids and grandkids dont share our sayings they tend to follow American ones not that anything wrong with them ,just we're losing our culture . :-S

Hi June,

Some of my Mum's family were Irish,originally,so the goose's bridle saying could well be Irish-I hadn't really thought about it.

I agree with you-the speech of our younger generation here is definitely more Americanised now-which makes more for a sort of homogenised "global language" as the local sayings gradually disappear.I think it's a shame.One example is the American word "tush" ,as in push-before we would have said bottom,or backside,or b*m,.When I was a child we never used to say "movies", now we just don't say,"I'm going to see a film."

Margot.

When the clouds started to break, and a patch of blue sky showed, my Gran would always say, 'There's enough up there to make a sailor a pair of trousers'. (She was from Portsmouth and a naval family)