Rat problem

[Richard]

If the garden is full of birds or frogs or whatever, we also say "more (whatever) than you can shake a stick at". Anyone else say that or is it a family saying that's stuck?

 

Yes, I would say 'more than you can shake a stick at'. I don't think it's something from East Anglia (I would include Lincolnshire in that - would you?) as I'm sure I've heard it in other places.

[Charlottechicken]

Dad is always going on about people getting on his wick and if it's stormy, it's either "black over Will's mother's" (dad's side) or "black over Mucky Bennett's" (mum's side).

 

We use the word "wick" in that context Kate, but my grandad used it to mean something different, anyone care to guess?

 

We also say "black over Bill's mother's" here.

 

I use the word toilet, but I understand the correct word is lavatory, as a toilet is to spruce yourself up? (As in toiletries help you perform your toilet). I think Kate Middleton got some stick from Prince William's friends for saying toilet (hey, maybe I have middle class aspirations!)

 

I also say scone to rhyme with bone.

 

We had a fab saying when I was little, if something was really good we would say it was "bostin Austin"

[bronze]

 

Just been talking to Mum and she was saying that when she was playing in the playground, they used to yell "crosses" if they wanted a break and didn't want to get tigged. We used to shout "exes". Any other variations?

paxes

dont know how top spell it

it rhymes with taxies

and often youi had to cross your fingers at the same time

[craftyhunnypie]

We used to say ' holly' and stick our thumbs out. What was all that about eh?

 

Emma.x

[Guest]

 

Just been talking to Mum and she was saying that when she was playing in the playground, they used to yell "crosses" if they wanted a break and didn't want to get tigged. We used to shout "exes". Any other variations?

paxes

dont know how top spell it

it rhymes with taxies

and often youi had to cross your fingers at the same time

That's what we said too. It comes from the Latin 'pax' meaning peace.

[Guest]

My Grandmum says that if something is a mess it looks like "The wreck of the Hesperus"

 

 

I called Caity that today!

[U Ling]

When ...

 

You get a hire car from work...

 

They've run out of the group B cars the company will pay for ...

 

You get given a new VW Beetle Cabriolet ...

 

You get in and think "these seats haven't got much back support"

[One Man Banned]

When ...

 

You get a hire car from work...

 

They've run out of the group B cars the company will pay for ...

 

You get given a new VW Beetle Cabriolet ...

 

You get in and think "these seats haven't got much back support"

 

Wasn't Hertz was it?

 

 

A

xx

[beach chick]

we said 'pax', but if you didnt cross your fingers, it didnt count...

also the 'more than' thing.

my father had some fantastic expressions - if someone was stirring it then 'so and so had his ***** in the custard again'!! (Navy man, no excusing them!)

[Egluntyne]

My Grandmum says that if something is a mess it looks like "The wreck of the Hesperus"

I think it was a ship that sunk or something, but I have no idea why she says it

 

That is an expression of mine! Usually used in connection with children's untidy bedrooms.

 

Literary moment coming up.

 

It is from the "Wreck of the Hesperus" by Henry Longfellow

 

It was the schooner Hesperus,

That sailed the wintery sea;

And the skipper had taken his little daughter,

To bear him company.

 

Blue were her eyes as the fairy flax,

Her cheeks like the dawn of day,

And her bosom white as the hawthorn buds,

That ope in the month of May.

 

The Skipper he stood beside the helm,

His pipe was in his mouth,

And he watched how the veering flaw did blow

The smoke now West, now South.

 

Then up and spake an old Sailor,

Had sailed the Spanish Main,

"I pray thee, put into yonder port,

for I fear a hurricane.

 

"Last night the moon had a golden ring,

And to-night no moon we see!"

The skipper, he blew whiff from his pipe,

And a scornful laugh laughed he.

 

Colder and louder blew the wind,

A gale from the Northeast,

The snow fell hissing in the brine,

And the billows frothed like yeast.

 

Down came the storm, and smote amain

The vessel in its strength;

She shuddered and paused, like a frighted steed,

Then leaped her cable's length.

 

"Come hither! come hither! my little daughter,

And do not tremble so;

For I can weather the roughest gale

That ever wind did blow."

 

He wrapped her warm in his seaman's coat

Against the stinging blast;

He cut a rope from a broken spar,

And bound her to the mast.

 

"O father! I hear the church bells ring,

Oh, say, what may it be?"

"Tis a fog-bell on a rock bound coast!" --

And he steered for the open sea.

 

"O father! I hear the sound of guns;

Oh, say, what may it be?"

Some ship in distress, that cannot live

In such an angry sea!"

 

"O father! I see a gleaming light.

Oh say, what may it be?"

But the father answered never a word,

A frozen corpse was he.

 

Lashed to the helm, all stiff and stark,

With his face turned to the skies,

The lantern gleamed through the gleaming snow

On his fixed and glassy eyes.

 

Then the maiden clasped her hands and prayed

That saved she might be;

And she thought of Christ, who stilled the wave,

On the Lake of Galilee.

 

And fast through the midnight dark and drear,

Through the whistling sleet and snow,

Like a sheeted ghost, the vessel swept

Tow'rds the reef of Norman's Woe.

 

And ever the fitful gusts between

A sound came from the land;

It was the sound of the trampling surf,

On the rocks and hard sea-sand.

 

The breakers were right beneath her bows,

She drifted a dreary wreck,

And a whooping billow swept the crew

Like icicles from her deck.

 

She struck where the white and fleecy waves

Looked soft as carded wool,

But the cruel rocks, they gored her side

Like the horns of an angry bull.

 

Her rattling shrouds, all sheathed in ice,

With the masts went by the board;

Like a vessel of glass, she stove and sank,

Ho! ho! the breakers roared!

 

At daybreak, on the bleak sea-beach,

A fisherman stood aghast,

To see the form of a maiden fair,

Lashed close to a drifting mast.

 

The salt sea was frozen on her breast,

The salt tears in her eyes;

And he saw her hair, like the brown sea-weed,

On the billows fall and rise.

 

Such was the wreck of the Hesperus,

In the midnight and the snow!

Christ save us all from a death like this,

On the reef of Norman's Woe!

 

They don't write 'em like that anymore . Thank heavens.

[Cate in NZ]

Thanks Egluntine, "The Wreck of the Hesperus" was one of my Dad's favourite phrases and I never knew where it came from. I did realise that it wasn't flattering whenever he described me as looking like it on all too many occasions as a teenager.

I talk about Ginnels too, have confused many a Southern softie down her with reference to taking a short cut through the ginnel

Does any one know what a Dayno is? I can't work out if it was a family word or a true North West expression, but I regularly take my rubbish to the Dayno (Council rubbish tip ).

[feemcg]

A rubbish tip here is a coup (cowp) as in " get your room tidied, it looks like a cowp"

[starboyhull]

Ive never heard that one.......My mum used to say "your room looks like a tip" lol

[Helly Welly]

 

Paaaaark on the Caaaaarrrr Parrrk near Aaaaarrrrgos, look round the Maaaaaarket and get a baaaaaaargain for nine nine eee nine! That is exactly how the Crewe Chavvies talk!

 

 

 

Emma.x

 

 

paxes

dont know how top spell it

it rhymes with taxies

and often youi had to cross your fingers at the same time

 

this became paxo for us and we played "it" with no "T", not tig or tag.

 

And my room always looked like a pigsty!

[feemcg]

.....or a midden - great name for a boy's smelly bedroom

[Cinnamon]

Thanks Egluntine, "The Wreck of the Hesperus" was one of my Dad's favourite phrases and I never knew where it came from. I did realise that it wasn't flattering whenever he described me as looking like it on all too many occasions as a teenager.

 

Ditto to that - what a powerful & interesting poem.

I have done a bit more research on it & found out some really interesting stuff.

 

It was a real event, the wreck, & was a great disaster of its time.

One of the bodies washed ashore was lashed to a post & was a middle aged man, but Longfellow changed this to a young girl for his poem in the name of artistic license.

 

I think I will make it an aim of mine to use the expression when I am talking to the daughters about their rooms this weekend, just to see the confused expressions

[Couperman]

You know you are getting old when you finally get to the end of that poem!

 

What an epic! I had to stop halfway through to go for a shave!

 

It reminded me of a poem about a rail bridge disaster on the Forth

(I think) can't remember how it goes but was a very similar style. I remember Billy Connolly reading it in a snow spattered raging hooligan on his 'World Tour Of Scotland' series.

 

We call packed lunches 'Bait' I think it's a Codhead thing.

 

 

Kev.

[Couperman]

Here the poem i was on about! by a chap named McGonnal

 

 

The Tay Bridge Disaster

Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay!

Alas! I am very sorry to say

That ninety lives have been taken away

On the last Sabbath day of 1879,

Which will be remember'd for a very long time.

 

'Twas about seven o'clock at night,

And the wind it blew with all its might,

And the rain came pouring down,

And the dark clouds seem'd to frown,

And the Demon of the air seem'd to say-

"I'll blow down the Bridge of Tay."

 

When the train left Edinburgh

The passengers' hearts were light and felt no sorrow,

But Boreas blew a terrific gale,

Which made their hearts for to quail,

And many of the passengers with fear did say-

"I hope God will send us safe across the Bridge of Tay."

 

But when the train came near to Wormit Bay,

Boreas he did loud and angry bray,

And shook the central girders of the Bridge of Tay

On the last Sabbath day of 1879,

Which will be remember'd for a very long time.

 

So the train sped on with all its might,

And Bonnie Dundee soon hove in sight,

And the passengers' hearts felt light,

Thinking they would enjoy themselves on the New Year,

With their friends at home they lov'd most dear,

And wish them all a happy New Year.

 

So the train mov'd slowly along the Bridge of Tay,

Until it was about midway,

Then the central girders with a crash gave way,

And down went the train and passengers into the Tay!

The Storm Fiend did loudly bray,

Because ninety lives had been taken away,

On the last Sabbath day of 1879,

Which will be remember'd for a very long time.

 

As soon as the catastrophe came to be known

The alarm from mouth to mouth was blown,

And the cry rang out all o'er the town,

Good Heavens! the Tay Bridge is blown down,

And a passenger train from Edinburgh,

Which fill'd all the peoples hearts with sorrow,

And made them for to turn pale,

Because none of the passengers were sav'd to tell the tale

How the disaster happen'd on the last Sabbath day of 1879,

Which will be remember'd for a very long time.

 

It must have been an awful sight,

To witness in the dusky moonlight,

While the Storm Fiend did laugh, and angry did bray,

Along the Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay,

Oh! ill-fated Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay,

I must now conclude my lay

By telling the world fearlessly without the least dismay,

That your central girders would not have given way,

At least many sensible men do say,

Had they been supported on each side with buttresses,

At least many sensible men confesses,

For the stronger we our houses do build,

The less chance we have of being killed.

 

 

Should we a start an unfeasiably long poem thread!

Kev.

[Lesley]

Huh!? sorry, did you say something? I was just having a little doze.....

[Looney]

Resurrecting this thread as I got picked up for saying something at work today and thought to myself " must write that on the forum"!

 

Does anyone else call an armpit an armhole? I'm from Lincolnshire so it sounds a bit more like 'armole when I say it....people at work thought it was hilarious

 

I also say lughole quite often instead of ear but think I got that from my Dad (who is from South Yorkshire) and fizzog for face as in "shut yer fizzog"....

 

My OH now always calls his packed lunch a 'pack-up' which he takes to work in his buttie-box.

 

I love the Lincolnshire version of hello which was always "now duck" where I came from, sounds a bit like "naduck" when said!

 

 

I'll stop rambling now

[Egluntyne]

I say lug hole occasionally. I'm from Manchester and it's used a lot there. Or at least is was when I "were" a lass.

 

Duck is used a lot in Sheffield. I found it strange when I first came here, as I thought it was a warning!

[Lesley]

- don't! I've got the giggles already today......

[Looney]

 

I remember people saying they were "feeling a bit badly" instead of feeling unwell.

 

Back to the original theme of the thread though.....well, sort of .......I felt quite young the other weekend when I was asked for ID in a restaurant because I'd ordered a bottle of wine! YIPPEE!!!!!

[Richard]

I worked in Boston, Lincs for many years and 'naa then duck' was a standard greeting.

 

Fissog - from physiognomy (Greek I reckon) - cast of features, face as index of character.

[Snowy]

I missed all this while I was away!

I've just waded through it all - brilliant!

My OH has a 'bait box', we have breakfast, dinner and tea, an alley is a ginnel (they call them jitties here in Leicester ), we use fissog and lug'ole too. OH is from Bolton and has a very broad lancashire accent - buz (bus), buke (book), luke (look), he even thee's and tha's after a few beers. I still can't understand him after 17 years (mind you, I gave up trying after 1 - just nod and pretend to agree! ).

 

I remember as a teenager hearing a lady ask for a 'plarster' from the first aid kit and I fell about laughing. I'd never heard a southern accent before and genuinely thought she was putting it on! My poor mother was so embarrassed by me!