Knowledge that a true Southerner is born with

The difference between a hissie fit and a conniption fit

Pretty much how many fish make up a mess

What general direction cattywumpus is

How long "directly" is---As in "Going to town, be back directly."

That "gimme sugar" don't mean pass the sugar

When "by and by" is

How to handle their "pot likker"

The best gesture of solace for a neighbor who's got trouble is a plate of cold potato salad

The difference between "pert' near" and "a right far piece"

The differences between a redneck, a good ol' boy, and po' white trash

Never to go snipe hunting twice

Never to assume that the other car with the flashing turn signal is actually going to make a turn

You may wear long sleeves, but you should always roll 'em up past the elbows

You should never loan your tools, pick-up, or gun to nobody

The South is more American than America

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ROFLOL!!! Don't everybody know that stuff????? (said with a thick southern drawl!)

I wonder tiG how many knows what pot likker is???????

Oh no! I am a transplanted yankee and I think pot likker is the juice from a pot of cooked greens. Am I right? As for hissie fit and conniption fit, Adam, another transplanted yankee definitely knows that definition. hee hee! I'm just curious about the cold plate of potato salad. By the way, I used the adjective "transplanted" instead of the one usually used for yankees who decided to relocate down south. lol

Carol good to hear from you. I should have changed the word on potato to tater. I think because we love tater salad and it goes with everthing. And you are no longer a yankee if you know what pot likker is and you know. Boy some crumbled up corn bread and some pot likker poured over it is a meal that God is probable having for lunch today. We have the old saying the difference between a yankee and a [profanity removed] yankee is the yankee visits and goes back and the [profanity removed] yankee comes and stays. Only a joke. Carol I remember you emailing me about the trip you were planning and when Adam acted as if he didn't approve you giving him the "LOOK". I have no idea what you look like but I can
see that "LOOK" on your face. LOL Probable in the class with coniption fit without the words.LOL

When I cook greens I always save the pot likker to use as a soup base....yummy!!!

O.K. this is comming out of the mouth (or fingers) of a northener born and bred..... Which direction is cattywumpus and where the HECK is it?
sue

Jim, back in January when I was really weak from the surgery and chemo in December, I had a very poor appetite and couldn't taste much. I scheduled my poor mother, who is in her 80s and thought I was going to die, for a visit between treatments. Had to really work on keeping her from coming when I was "out of it", but I gave her an assignment. I was absolutely craving, I mean serious craving, pot liquor from turnip greens cooked in a black iron pot, along with baked yams, cornbread, Mama's biscuits and some fried bream. So she cooked it all up, bumming the fish from friends' freezers since it was too cold to catch them fresh, and she and my sister drove all the way from NE Louisiana to central Texas with my mercy food. I don't think anything ever tasted better than that pot liquor. There was almost 2 quarts of it, and no one else would touch it because they were so glad I was eating. Yes, that is indeed food for the gods.

Such a wonderful story Aimee! And you certainly seem to have benefitted from it!! So cool! Thanks for sharing!
Now as for you GeorgiaRedClay...me and DD are going on our semi-annual limb-line catfish river cruise this wkend, and we ALWAYS come back with a MESS of fish! Be thinking about ya! She's a healthy-hearted 7 yr old and reaches out from the front of the canoe, grabs them lines and hoist them up and says "it's a keeper, dad!!!" The only thing brighter than the sun is her smile!

awwww Shoe, you're a big ole softy, just like GRC!!!!

Oh, Shoe, I know she is precious. If I was there I would clean the fish for you so I could eat my fill. Well, at
least a bunch. No one has ever actually filled me up when it comes to fresh fish. BTW, I read in one of the many books people brought to me that those dark greens and their pot liquor were serious fighters against the free radicals all cancers love. You've heard that a craving means your body needs it, and mine was exactly in tune with all the professional advice. That is, after the fact. Before surgery, I craved sweets for the first and only time in my life. Guess what feeds cancer cells? Sugar! Tell your little doll an old Texas woman hopes she catches a big mess.

Sue, cattywampus can not be explained. You have to be from the south to understand it. Just kidding. A sentence with it would be
The tire on the pick up looks sort of cattywampus. This means it could be out of round or something is wrong with it.

The screw sort of sits on the bolt cattywampus like. Meaning it doen't look right.

The dresser sits sort of cattywampus in the corner of the room. Meaning it sort of sits crooked.

Hope this helps you understand a little better.

Shoe I wish I was with you and the precious girl child. Not for the fishing but to see that smile.

Aimee I have never had my fill either. Fish or pot likker.

This is an oldie, but some of you may remember it. What is "right smart" when you are measuring? (Usually when you are cooking.)

Oh thanks I get it now?!?!?! (I think)
sue

Jim, I hate to mention this, but you mispelled dreckly, didn't you?

Well I have lived in California all my life and the only one I didn't know was Pot likker!

Sue , come on down south you got the hang of it.
Aimee nere cud spal gud.
Zany now you can have soem likker to wash down the fruitcake with.

Jim, giving "the look" means a woman isn't going to waste any of her time on a coniption fit - her mind is made up!

Carol I think I have seen that look a few times in my life. I keep trying to forget.LOL

So how come youse guys doan go snipe huntin'? Probly doan know how ta shake that bag so's to ketch 'em Huh?

Bag do you mean sack?? We use croacker sacks no bags here.
We do go twice but we keep it in the dark. Don't let anyone know that I let a yankee in on our secret. LOL

ozarksue I have never heard that expression. Enlighten us a little bit on it.

I have a recipe from my great grandmother for biscuits that starts out with a "right smart amount of flour". Then a pinch or so of salt for every portion of flour used. Needless to say it is not a real easy recipe to follow! She told my mother it meant a handful for each biscuit and the number of handfuls depended on how many how many folks were coming to breakfast! She figured two biscuits each plus a few extras should do it!

I thought we always used a toe sack, is that the same thing as a croaker sack? After Aunt Myrtle got fancy ideas and started decorating her house by the books, it became burlap and was colored, but it didn't fool us, we knew it was still toe sacks.

I have heard it called toe sack also but we called it crocker sack. Why I don't know. Burlap is the fancy name.

When we went frog gigging, we always put the frogs in a toe sack, so maybe it got its name from those croakers. It makes as much sense as a trot line, which my grandpa always called a trout line and never thought about it being mostly for catfish.

I've heard trout and trot also. It's a wonder we can communicate at all. LOL
I had heard the croaker sack explanation before. I just forgot until you mentioned. Another senior moment in my life.

This message was edited Wednesday, Nov 7th 7:33 PM

Are you sure its bullFROGS that you're putting in them gunnysacks? BTW of COURSE you hunt snipe at night otherwise they would see the sack and you would NEVER catch one!

Well darn it all I heard frog gigging and had to jump in here. lol I always put them in a old feed sack. Never heard them called the toe sack or croaker sack but makes sense to me. lol

Right smart means a little more, like we say a heaping teaspoon. Usually called them Gunny sacks but there was another term. If I can get my brain moving will add it in later.

I remembered!!!!!!! A burlap bag was called a poke. I have been told it was because it was carried to pick poke greens. But when I asked my granny about it years ago, She just looked puzzled and said that was what it was!

i remember when i was a little girl my gran(from missippi) would get angry at someone and say "they ain't nothin but an old pole cat", what the heck, does anyone know exactly what a pole cat is???

This message was edited Wednesday, Nov 7th 11:57 PM

Some folks call skunks pole cats. Now about that pig, you don't want to buy a pig in a poke, or it might be a dog. Figuratively, of course.

Here are some little ditties I thought I would pass on.

A true southerner knows that you put sugar in your iced tea and hominy, but NEVER in your corn bread.

A southerner can get away with saying ANYTHING about ANYBODY as long as the insult is prefaced with "Bless her heart"...as in, Bless her heart, that girl is butt ugly.

Carrying's on have nothing to do with luggage.

You NEVER microwave grits.

The family silver is NOT that big medallion aroud Uncle Vinnie's neck.

"That'll jar your nuts" and "You're gettin' on my last nerve" mean pretty much the same thing.

You should be careful when you are riding in a skiff that you don't get updumped.

You can tell a bad boy coming up if he smokes cattails.

And I thought I would throw this in for good measure...

What does a tornado and a redneck divorce have in common?
Somebody's gonna lose a trailer. HAHA

Thanks for reading,

KendraSue

Kikisdad didn't you know snipes are blind in one eye and can't see our of the other one. Reckon I will have to organize a snipe hunt and invite all of my friends from Dave's to come. Any one game. LOL
mystic the old feed sacks as I recall was different, or some of them were, they weren't as thick as burlap.
any one ever wear a dress made from flour sacks. Thank God I was a boy but my sister was real pretty in hers. I remember my mother telling about a group going swimming in her early days and back in those days they didn't undress as they do today. One girl went in the water and on the seat of her clothing you could read "25 lbs. of the very best" when she emerged which was an advertisment by Martha White Flour. Sounds today like something Madonna would love to wear.
tootsie the old pole cat and skunk are the same. I do wonder why they were called pole cat.
KendraSue those are some great ones.

PIG IN A POKE (Buy a)---To buy something without seeing it.---"He sent away for it, he's getting a pig in a poke."---Thomas Tusser (1580). Five Hundredth Good Pointes of Husbandrie. The game was to put a cat in the poke (pouch) and try to sell it as a pig, persuading the buyer not to open the poke because the pig might get out. Hence the saying "let the cat out of the bag."

Why Shoe! You mean to tell us you never got to wear a shirt made out of flour sacks! Ya all must have been rich! Boys down my way looked mighty fine in them!

Then there are the Southern rules of pronunciation. Namely that any two-syllable word will generally have the accent on the first syllable, no matter how Yankees pronounce it.

Examples: PEE-can (or PEE-cahn if you're snooty); DEE-troit, CEE-ment, PO-lice, TAY-ters, MAY-ters, and (it's 3 syllables, but it's an important one) THEE-ATE-er.

Failure to follow these rules will lead to the inevitable question, "You ain't from around here, are ya?"

Zany, shoe said hi. LOL
Shoe send Zany some plants for the compliment.LOL
go vols that is CO reck.I love those. I believe you have been listening to my conversations. But if we can't poke fun at ourselves and find humor in the things we do if would really make for a dull life.


This message was edited Thursday, Nov 8th 4:59 PM

Sorry to be late with my response... but I noticed that no one mentioned that the typical southern ailin' in the summer is something made from peaches... especially at a funeral. Peach pie, peach cobbler, peach anything.

I used to question, "WHERE is 'out yonder'??

And, did you now that there really is something called a 'snipe'???
http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i2300id.html