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OT Sayings from Times Past

J

John B.

Well-known Member
What are some of the sayings you know or heard of that were created of the times years ago, such as;

1. Full Steam Ahead
2. Pour The Coals To Her
3. That's like trying to stretch a gnat over a
fence post.
 
So whatdayaknow for sure? Well, it takes a big dog to weigh a ton! Big People are a ton of fun! Takes one to know one! Put it where the sun don't shine!
 

Finer than frog hair! As scarce as hen"s teeth! And my Dad would always tell us how far away we were from some place as "just a hop-skip-and a jump"
 
Drive her like you stole her!
Better to be pithed off than pithed on!
Drier than a frog on a barn loft!
Wetter than a gundog's lughole (ear!)
busier than a cat trying to bury it's cr*p on a marble floor.
Faster than a cat on a hot tin roof!
Stupid is what stupid does.
You cannot cure stupid
I am sure I will remember more!
Sam
 
"Hungry (or irritable) as a b***h wolf with nine suckin' pups."

Now here's one you've never heard before:

"That boy's got more sense than a runaway n****r."

Before anyone gets offended and starts pounding me with the PC stick, let me explain. When I was a young boy in the late 40s I was attending a funeral at our little country church. An old black man in his late 70s or early 80s drove up in his wagon and team to pay respect to the deceased. Louis Alexander was his name; everybody called him "Louis Alec", for short.

I, my dad and a couple of other men went out to the wagon to chat with the old man. My dad was recounting a tale about something clever I had done; Louis Alec reared back in his wagon seat and gave a hearty guffaw and responded with the line above. I've never heard it since (and don't expect to). It obviously had common use with him and his people, and its origins were obvious and authentic, as the old man was either born a slave himself or was the son of slave parents.
 
Probably quite localized, and not as true as it used to be.
"A dry year will scare you to death, but a wet year will starve you to death".
The climate here tends to be wet. Back when horses were the power, and timing and cultivation were weed control, I can see how that was possible.
Now, with big machines, hybrid seed, fert. and chem., we can put up with quite a bit of water, but sure can't get big yields without it.
 
tighten it as tight as you can get it and give it half a turn more.
She's leaning a little tward fisher.
He is so dumb he couldn't pour P out of a boot with direction's on the heel.
 
When we would argue with my dad. He got the last word by saying.
What did I say.
After fixing something.He would say.
Crank it up. Lets see what blows up first.
Don't be a dirt clod dumba$$
Can't get blood out of a turnip.
He doesn't have an elevator.
He doesn't have any bricks.
Can't never could do anything.
It's only rain and you ain't sugar.
 
He is so clumsy that he couldnt hit sand if he fell of a camel. ( a dork)

If he went any slower he would be going in reverse. (a slow driver)
 
Shortly after reading this, the man at the elevator asked me what I knew today. Told him it takes a big dog to make a ton. I think he'd heard it before.
 
Still wet behind the ears
slower than mollasses in January
colder than a witch's t**
crooked as a dog's hind leg
don't know sh** from Shinola
"Jesus H Christ!" (have no idea where that came from or what the H is for!
poorer than a church mouse
don't have a pot to pi** in
can't get blood out of a turnip
 
Pinned his ears back.

Grinnin" like a Mule eatin" briars.

Tightern" a tick.

Spread out like a Hot Breakfast.

Drunkern" a skunk.

Busier than a one armed paper hanger in a windstorm.
 
Growing up, we never had much. Dad would often tell us we were so poor we couldn't even pay attention. And I still feel that way today.
 
if i knowed you was coming i'd baked a cake
lite down, stay for supper
i called myself a looking
well, shut my mouth
its katie bar the door time
well cut my legs off and call me shorty
well butter my butt and call me a biscuit
time to get shed of it
and jed clamplett's "times awasting".
 
"You look like Hobbs' odd ox".

"If it was a bear it woulda bit you". (if you couldn't find something that was right beside you)

Both from my greatgrandmother
Zach
 
1) Crazier than a pet coon.

2) Dumber than a bag of hammers.

3) Jumpier than a long-tailed tom cat in a room full of rockin' chairs.

3) Put your foot through the firewall.
 
A lot of our sayings come from the era of the days when steam was king.
Such as highfalutin,hog wash, don't cotton to him,jerk water etc. If any one wants to know what they mean let me know.
 
It takes two of him to make a wit.
Uglier than the north end of a south going mule.
Dumb as a fencepost.
Too stupid to walk and chew gum at the same time.
Tighter than bark to a tree.
If he shakes your hand, you better count your fingers afterwards.
So hungry I could eat a roadkill skunk.
I have to pee so bad I can taste it.
 
Do you think the rain will hurt the rhubarb?
Pouring the coals to it.
Burn out the cobwebs.
Hotter than a two dollar pistol.
All steamed up.
Gee.
Ha.
Whoa.
Brick S***house.
 
Bowed his neck

Feeling his oats

Chickens are die'n faster than we can eat'em

Wish I could buy him for what he's worth and sell him for what he thinks he's worth.

Sleep with dogs you get fleas

This hay beats snowballs
 
You're gonna get me sent to the chain gang

colder than a well diggers A**

coon's age

higher than a kite

round to it

and my dad's favorite "roast nears" meaning roasting ears of corn
 
Figured one of you guys would have said this one, my 82 year old father has said this one all my life, "Boy, he's gonna have a hard row to hoe."
 
My mom has a never ending supply

*A heavy rain is called a toad strangler.
*If it is cold it might be "Colder than a witch's t1tt in a brass brassiere".
*Diarhea was called "summer complaint".
*If someone sits at a green light she yells "What are you waitin' for, the pole to turn green, too?"
*When I would grind the gears in the big truck she would say "Grind me a pound, too, honey".
*When things get pricey she says they are "higher than a cat's back".
*If you fix the engine she says it's "a'runnin like a scalded dog".
*A lot of something (like kids) would mean they "had more kids than Carter's got pills".
*When someone is rather overweight she refers to them as "The Fuller Family".
 
How come no one came up with " The whole nine yards" Never knew what that meant until my Dad(WWII vet)Told me that it meant shooting all the ammo in a fighter plane. A total of 9 yards!
 
Rainin harder than a cow peein on a flat rock.

Got the runs so bad, I could c-rap through a screen door, and ne'er hit a wire!

Lick that knife off, before you stick it back in the butter!

Lacguerda huntsaboidle (swabish dialog, highly polished item)

Bout as useful as polishin a t-urd

Makin a silk purse out of a sow's ear

Road so crooked, it could break a snake's back

He's so crooked, they ain't a goin to bury him, their just gonna screw him into the ground!
 
When my dad talks about how things were growing up ( he was born on 1925) he still says: " We did't have anything, but we got it honest".
 
Jerk water .. I believe is the same a "Drain the lizard"
Dad would say as he went around the corner Be back in a second "Gotta go see an Indian about a blanket"or "a man about a horse" just his way of excusing himself.

So poor I can't pay attention.
Uglier than a mud puppy.
If his brains were made of cotton, he wouldn't have enough to make a Ko... (brand of feminine napkin) for a Fly
 
a few bricks short of a load, got a dollar waiting on a dime, lights on but nobody home, not the sharpest knife in the drawer, got tied up in the nightgown (when someone is late),can"t get there from here.
 
I had a boss that was an old farm boy and back in the early 1980's he had a couple of good ones.

1. He's shaking like a dog sh!ttin peach seeds.

2. He's as nervous as a in hoer church with a $2 bill
 
Five pound o' flour will make an awful big biscuit.----Them folks are so rough they wear out their clothes from the inside out.
 
"Balls out" or "high ballin' it" ..both refer to the weights on the spinning governor of a steam engine.

"Wilder than a cuttin box" no idea what that refers to.
 
I bought it lock, stock and barrel.
you'll get three squares a day.
It's going to be a three dog night!
Freeze the balls off a brass monkey!
Three sheets to the wind.

Brian
 
this road is so crooked it musta been laid out by a double-jointed blacksnake.
 
When Hector was a pup.

That boy is dumber than a sack of hammers.

Ain't that spiffy.

Took off like a ruptured duck.

Runs like a stripe'd azz ape.

Haven't seen you in a coon's age.

All over him like a cheap suit.

That ol gal is tougher than a pine knot.
 
The road was so crocked I came up behind a vehicle and discovered it was the one I was driving.
 

In the militery:Been around so long he pulled KP at the Last Supper, Been around since Christ was a corporal, Pulled chocks for the Wright brothers.
 
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