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Tim Cuthbertson
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Along with so many others here, I never heard of Mountain Hoosiers. I only heard about Indiana Hoosiers and I never had any idea what the term referred to.
However, I grew up a Georgia Cracker, and I never had any idea what that meant, either. I loved the Atlanta Crackers baseball club, though.
My Life In Appalachia - Mountain Hoosiers
I was consulting my Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English for something when my eye fell upon the entry mountain hoosier-a term I have never heard. According to the dictionary, Joseph Hall's earliest research showed people native to the mountains of NC and TN called themselves as well as their ...
Yes, I remember counting potatoes, but I never really understood it. And we also didn't say potato after 4.
Counting Taters
This post was originally published here on the Blind Pig in May of 2010. Since we're about to start talking about games-I thought it would be a good time to repost it. Did you ever use the counting potatoes method for picking who was 'it' in a game? As kids we used it to tell us who was goi...
I also just split mine in half. I have never even thought of tearing them into little pieces.
Appalachia Through My Eyes - Biscuits And Gravy
As The Deer Hunter and I fixed our plates for supper last night-I realized there was a MAJOR compatibility issue in our relationship. I'll never know how I managed to overlook the problem for the last 19 years. For whatever reason, after a long day at work with everyone reaching over top of ea...
My in-laws say "exter". At least, that is what it sounds like to me.
Tim
Appalachia Through My Eyes - Extry
We had such a fine Christmas! It seemed like I kept hearing different family members comment about how good it was. We're all well-the 2 Yale Boys are home where we can see them and sleep better knowing they're just down the hill from us instead of way up north. We had good food-good music-goo...
I used Wildroot Cream Oil when I was a kid in the 50's and 60's. I can still hear the man in the TV commercials calling out, "Wildroot Cream Oil Charlie!" I always liked the way it smelled.
The only thing I remember using turpentine for was paint thinner or cleaning oily things.
Wildroot And Turpentine
The Blind Pig Gang congregated in the coffee/tea area of the Keith House while we waited for our concert to start last week. While the community room was filling, several folks came to wish us well. I saw my friend, Tom, coming through the hallway. Tom is one of our costars in the movie If I ...
But, the thing is that the man in your original story was using arrowy as a noun, while the precedents and definitions you found were all using it as an adjective.
A Closer Look At The Word Arrowy
Almost every comment on yesterday's Appalachian Vocabulary Test was the same-folks were familiar with all the words except arrowy. Most of you will remember-but for those of you who might have missed the test-I explained the word like this: Arrowy: arrow. "They've got a arrowy painted on the...
I remember these from a long time ago, but I have not had one or even heard about them in years. I wonder why such good things become forgotten?
Fruit Cocktail Cake
A few weeks ago, Miss Cindy showed us how to make a Fruit Cocktail Cake-and I'm so glad she did! Miss Cindy said she used to make them all the time but over the years she just sorta forgot about them and then something made her think of the recipe and she knew she had to share it with me and y...
I am citified on these questions, I guess. I turn the lights on and off, and I pay the power bill or, sometimes, the electricity bill.
Tim
Appalachia Through My Eyes - Light Bill Or Electric Bill?
I was in head start when we moved into the house Pap built. I think my room was pink in the beginning-then it was yellow-then purple-then finally a tan color. Even though the wall color changed during the years I slept in the room-the light switch cover didn't until I reached adulthood. Just...
Yes, my mother said it all the time. She said it emphatically, too, like she was imitating someone she had heard say it back in her past.
Appalachia Through My Eyes - Puddin Tame
I've told you before-I was backwards as a child. Actually, sometimes I still am. The other day I remembered an old saying I heard often when I was little-but haven't heard in years. When I was hiding behind Granny's dress or hanging on one of Pap's britchey legs, someone would say to me: "What...
Yes Tipper, that is a small Eastern Fence Lizard, also known as a Swift Lizard - they are very fast runners. They are closely related to the horned toads of the west. I have seen them on the retaining wall at my house. One time I saw one on the top of the wall and trued to move close to it for a better look. I saw it take off, then it was gone. I looked around and saw it about 10 feet up the side of my house, which was about 10 feet away horizontally, too. It seemed to have moved about 20 feet in a split second!
Appalachia Through My Eyes - Brown Lizards
Yesterday, when Chatter came in from outdoors, a small friend had hitched a ride on her leg. He was about 2 inches long. The brown lizards seems to thrive on the rocky red clay bank behind our house. Me and the girls call them dinosaur lizards-because the full grown ones look just like miniatu...
I never use "Y" as a word nor even think about it that way. I think it is a derivative of l33t-speak (pronounced elite-speak) which came into use on the internet several years back. It seems to be a desire to compress all literacy out of writing and reduce everything to the shortest sound alike possible.
Bleh!
Is It Y Or Why?
Do you ever ponder a question that seems like it should have an obvious easy peasy answer, but you still can't quit thinking about it? I do. Kinda like when you write a word and know it's spelled right but the more you look at it the more it seems like it's spelled wrong? A while back, a blind...
Yes, Tipper, the official high here in Pelham, AL was 105 yesterday, but it was even hotter in some places in the area. Weather Underground said 108. This is supposed to continue for the next few days. The high for July 4 is predicted to be a crisp, cool 97.
Appalachia Through My Eyes - Burnt Slap Up
Was it hot at your house yesterday? It was hot in Brasstown-as you can see 103.5 at just after 4pm. I tried to find out if it was a record breaking temperature for our area-but finally gave up and decided it was just hot and thats all there was too it. We desperately need rain-and I know folks...
No, Tipper. I try to know and understand as many words as I come across, but "cymling" is totally new, to me.
It's A Cymling - I Think
One day when I was looking up a word in my Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English, my eye fell upon the word cymling. *Cymling- noun. A small, inedible gourd or squash having an egglike shape, sometimes put in a nest to induce a hen to lay. Cf china, nest egg. I thought it was a strange word-an...
I have heard of phlox all my life and, other than knowing it was some kind of flower, I never had any idea what it is. Thanks.
But, I have been well aware of thrift for many years. In the old South, you would often see houses with banks that dropped sharply to street level covered with the brilliantly colored thrift. I loved seeing them, the color just made me happy. However, I can't remember the last time I saw it. Probably back in the 60's.
Appalachia Through My Eyes - Phlox
Carolina Phlox Polemoniaceae (Phlox Family) A few weeks ago, when we were talking about Thrift growing on my basement bank, more than a few of you said you had heard the low growing flower called Phlox. The photo above is what I grew up calling Phlox. The actual flowers look similar to Thrift ...
Tipper, I can't believe we have had this many responses and no one has yet said that wasps, hornets, and yellowjackets are not bees. Bees are an entirely different type of insect.
Anyway, I have several interesting stories I could tell, but I was once stung about 15 times by the same bald face hornet. I was riding my motorcycle and she went up the sleeve of my flannel shirt. The guys I was riding with said they had never seen anyone stop so fast. I dismounted and rolled up my sleeve. Nothing. I fixed my sleeve, got back on my bike and took off. She started stinging me, again. I stopped again, and this time carefully rolled up my sleeve so she wouldn't get tangled in it. She finally flew out.
But, that wasn't the end of it. I was standing there in a daze from being stung so many times and, instead of flying away, she hovered in a position about 18 inches from my eyes. Then she would dart at my face and go back to her position. It dawned on me to take a step back away from her and, when I did, she turned around and flew away. To this day, I understand that she was telling me, "I've got some more if you want it!"
Appalachia Through My Eyes - Bees
I've always been fascinated by bees-even though I've been stung enough during my life to know their stings hurt like the dickens. The most I've ever been stung at once-was 6 times. I stuck my hand in a yellow jackets nest on a state bridge up the Little East Fork of the Pigeon River. Seems lik...
Thanks for another interesting post, Tipper. I also have whippoorwills in my back yard at my suburban home in central Alabama. They are always pleasant to listen to.
The Call Of Whipporwills
A few weeks ago someone asked if I there were whippoorwills around where I live- I believe it was Laurie from Pride of West Virginia. There are whippoorwills in my mountain holler. In fact I've had a whippoorwill alarm clock for the last several weeks Every morning between 5 and 6 a whippoorwill...
Yes, I am familiar with all those uses of all. I especially remember frequently using the term "you all" when I was younger, but now I just contract it to "y'all". Maybe that is because I grew up in Ga but have now lived most of my life in Al. And y'all is certainly no worse than the northerners use for the same need, "you guys". That term really grates on my nerves, especially when it's used by a southern kid.
Appalachian Grammar Lesson 16
This Appalachian Grammar Lesson is all about the.. well.. its all about the all! We often add the word all to pronouns: "I don't know who all will be there, but I'm going down to that meeting they're having." or "After the food was eat they all got up and left out of there pretty quick like."...
That is a great reflection, Tipper. Thank you.
I Am ...
*Written on Saturday-May 26, 2012 I am sitting in the backyard under the hemlock tree listening to Gene Watson blare from The Deer Hunter's open truck windows. I am thinking what an amazing singer he is-I am thinking he sings the most romantic songs. I am watching The Deer Hunter bang nails...
Yes, what Shirla said. It is a dietary zinc deficiency. The best foods to get more zinc are oysters, beef, crab, pork and chicken, among many others. Also, supplements are available.
Appalachia Through My Eyes - White Spots
Have you ever noticed small white spots on your fingernails? I tried to take a picture of one on Chatter's finger you can just barely see it. I used to have the small white spots on my nails all the time-but it doesn't seem like I have them much anymore. When I was little Granny always told me...
I have very loving memories of my Mama. That is what my brothers and I always called her.
Of course, her cooking was the best. Fried chicken, biscuits, deviled eggs, so many wonderful things. She would cook everyone a big breakfast, but she almost always just had her toast and coffee.
She worked all her life, retiring at age 75. She always had fairly low paying jobs as a secretary or processing clerk in law firms. She got us three boys through college, though.
Thank you for being there for us, Mama.
My Mountain Momma
Granny and me - 1972 Wilson Holler I never realized the worth of my Mountain Momma until I had my girls. Almost immediately a curtain was pulled back and I could see the whole picture of being a mother. I felt like telling her: Oh, now I see what you did Momma. Of course Mothers provide food...
Yes, I remember dancing around May poles when I was a child, back in the 1950's. I haven't thought about it in years.
Dancing Around The May Pole
Earlier this week when I was listing the things that May brings to mind-I totally forgot one-The May Pole. Sometime during the last of April-strange things start happening around Brasstown-you know like top hats growing ferns around their edges. There's a rush on all the thrift stores-from p...
Yes, Tipper, it is very chilly here in central Alabama with plenty of blackberry flowers, too.
Appalachia Through My Eyes - Blackberry Blooms
Every year when the Blackberries bloom there's a cold snap of weather-I mean you can mark my word-there is always a cold spell that coincides with the white showy blooms of the Blackberry. I wondered if this year's unusually warm Spring would alter that cold snap-Appalachians call it Blackberr...
It was so long ago it is hard to remember, but I think it was just June 1 that we were allowed to start going barefoot.
Appalachia Through My Eyes - Going Barefoot
Did you go barefoot when you were little or maybe you still do? I've heard folks say their Mother wouldn't allow them to go barefoot till after Easter. We waited till school was out for summer vacation. It wasn't that we needed to save our shoes or had outgrown our present pair-its just when y...
I'm right there with you, Tipper. The only one I knew for sure was "hew out", but I pretty much understood "lay off". I would probably say "lay out", though.
Appalachian Vocabulary Test - The Garden Edition
Since most folks are either itching to get their garden planted-or have already started-I thought it'd be a good time for a special edition vocabulary test. Take it and see how familiar you are with the words below. Boy dixie Chalk Dropper Hew out land Lay off Boy Dixie: a single plowshar...
I always called them moths, and I don't believe I've ever heard them called millers. So, I guess I'm a city boy on this one.
I had a worse insect in my ear, one time. I was riding my motorcycle when a yellow jacket hit my neck and stayed there. As I was trying to stop, it crawled up under my helmet and into my ear. I was scared to death. I figured if it stung me, I would probably go deaf. I finally got stopped and took off my helmet, still having no idea what to do. The yellow jacket just turned around, crawled back out, and flew away!
Appalachia Through My Eyes - Millers Are Moths
The warm weather we've been having is crazy-everything is budded or bloomed out and I've seen bees and bugs a plenty-even inside my house. We leave a small light at the kitchen sink on at night-I guess we started leaving it on back in the days of 2am bottle feedings and just never got out of t...
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