Worsen every day
Have you noticed the way people speak these days? It is getting so as old Southern country folks can hardly understand a word that is said any more.
Remember “durn you?” Everyone knew what that meant. Now days you say durn you to someone and he would clobber you with a pick handle. It wouldn’t be that the word is so bad, it’s just that people can’t understand good English any more.
Now just for instance, take them two good old Southern country words, “Durn you.” Durn is the part of the sentence that makes you stop what you are doing and listen. You hear Mama’s voice when it says “you” and you know to stop what you are doing and listen to mama. If you didn’t stop and listen you could suffer the consequences later. Back in those days everyone knew what happened if you ignored “durn you.”
There is a couple more words that I remember that you didn’t ignore. Two I remember very well was “listen up.” There was nothing that would pull the attention and get full attention than “listen up.” Both ears stuck straight up, making sure that you didn’t lose any part of the message that was being sent. That message was sent by a voice that recorded it in your brain. It didn’t only stay with you that day but was still with you days following.
I believe every one of us knew what a “hickery” was. There was no problem remembering what to get when mama said, “Bring me a hickery.” The first thing you had to consider, who was the “hickery” for. Did you get it or was it for big brother or little sister? No big brother, and little sister was a tootie fruiter, so guess who the guest of honor is going to be? I often wondered why I got most of the “hickery.” I guess being the biggest I was the toughest.
A word that I remember learning early in life was the word “behind.”
I was very young when I learned where the behind was. A few open hands or a small hickery showed you where and what the behind was. You could get the behind twiddled with a small hickery. You could get it paddled by a giant hand or fall and land on it. It didn’t matter, you caught on early to try and protect the old behind.
I was at a country music show the other day.
Folks were playing and singing that good old country music. I went outside for a few minutes and saw a fellow squatting down beside the wall. I spoke, saying, “How is everything?” We started to talk. He had come outside and was squatting down, taking a break. I could not believe my eyes to find someone hunkered down just relaxing. Now you can squat down and lean back against a wall and relax. Hunkering down is different. When you hunker down, you completely relax.
I remember when we were young we would go “messing around.” When we were out messing around, we had better behave ourselves. Remember that the neighborhood mothers and fathers kept a watchful eye on the kids in the neighborhood. You done something that you shouldn’t, it was known before you got back home.
I remember just before the hand hit the behind: “This hurts me more than it will you.” I always wondered if it really did or were they trying to get rid of the guilt of spanking you. I remember the behind throbbing from the spanking, but can’t remember anyone rubbing their hands after a behind spanking.
Good old Southern English is slowly disappearing into the past. Remember the good old Southern English words, “I just do declare.” What about “You don’t say.” “Yes sir” and “no sir,” “yes ma’am” and “no ma’am.” Well, what about that. “Thank you.”
I get into some of those old folks’ conversations sometime and “chew the fat” with them. “Well, what do you know about that.”
The old folks had lots of ghosts and goblins. They have cut back the woods and killed off most of the goblins. The ghosts have run and hid and is very seldom seen. I heard a fellow talk about hunting a ghost on a country road and finding him, trying to run over him. I remembered hearing a neighbor talking about tying a man’s horse to the hitch rack and making him ride the hitch rack. Would that not have been an old Southern scene, horse walking beside a man riding the hitch rack home? He must have been one mean dude. I wondered what he would have done if the ghost had got into the car with him.
I guess there are a lot of things that could be improved on. Good old Southern English is not one of them. Where can you find expressions like “I just be hornswoggled” or “Look at that guy. He has the look of a jiggle-lo.”