Old Sand Mountain Terms

Cherry and River Birch Trees

Last Sunday we visited a church we belonged to some 20 years ago and we got the most pleasant hand shakes, smiles and hugs.  It was a pleasure to see all those old friends, but they looked so old!  Surely John have not aged like that.

The preacher brought a good message encouraging us to read the bible more so we would know how to live.  During the sermon he mentioned two terms his mother used — and he never knew what they meant.  One was I’ll be John Brown — the other was Well, I’ll swanee.  I don’t know where this man grew up, but those were ordinary usages here on Sand Mountain in my growing up years.  Too bad so many of these sayings are no longer used.  Of course, when I heard him refer to the terms I knew I had a title for another blog.  I’m listing a few that we can remember, but I’ll bet you can remember some of your own, too.  Now this is old-timey country living?

To have had too much to drink —
Drunk as Cooter Brown
High as a Georgia Pine

Sharp as a tack or sharp as a razor
Dull as a fro
Tight as Dick’s hat band
Loose as a goose
Quiet as a church mouse
Hot as fire
Dry as gully dirt
Limber as a dish rag
Nasty as a pig sty
Cold as kraut
Dumb as an ox
Just like pouring a dose of salts through a widow woman (meaning quick)
Killing two birds with one stone meant doing two chores at once
Two wet to plow