Well, I had no idea this node existed on E2, but I’ve had a lot of fun reading the writeups. I was born in the eastern part of Kentucky and grew up in the west, in a small town near the old Confederate capitol of Kentucky, Bowling Green.

Consequently, I’ve heard, and used, many of the sayings and slang in these writeups. However, I remember some that my late mother said frequently, that I don’t see anywhere here. Now, Mama’s people originated in England, Somerset to be exact, but they emigrated to America in the late 1500s and morphed into pure Kentucky stock. I’m not at all certain of the origin of these sayings, but I have heard some of them from others with whom I grew up. Imagine most of these said in a slightly indignant tone of voice …

“You’ll shit if you eat regular, too!” -- This one’s a little hard to explain. Let’s say I had this conversation with Mama:

Me: Mama, I’m goin’ up t’ town today.
Mama: Oh no, y’ain’t. I’ve got stuff f’r you to do around here t’day.
Me: But I wanna go in t’town today!
Mama: And I told you you’re not goin’!!
Me: Mama, I am goin’ to town!
Mama: “Uh-huh. And you’ll shit if you eat regular, too!”

It’s to say that … oh, hell, you had to grow up with it to really get the meaning!

“There ain’t nothin’ goes over the devil’s back but what it don’t come up his front.” -- This would’ve been how Mama expressed the popular meme, “What goes around, comes around”.

“Like a dose of salts through a widow woman.” -- As in, “Them kids started at the front door and went through that house like a dose of salts through a widow woman”. Said of people, mostly kids, that go rambling through a house not their own, poking through everything not their business.

“She (he) thinks her (his) shit don’t stink.” -- Said of grand or pretentious people; Mama usually said it about women she didn’t like.

“That boy’s walkin’ like he’s got a corncob stuck up his ass!” -- Mama used to say this whenever she saw someone walking strangely.

“The jaws of hell are gapin’ for somebody that’d do that!” --This one was Mama’s favorite for anyone who committed a particularly heinous crime, usually abusing children or especially animals. Animal abuse in particular tended to put Mama into a rage (and I inherited that from her!).

“I’d like to buy him for what I think he’s worth ‘n sell him for what HE thinks she’s worth!” -- Said of people who had, in Mama’s opinion, a very exaggerated sense of their own worth, or people who tended to look down the bridge of their nose at others.

Them two’s practicin’ on bein’ married! -- Mama used to say this about a man and woman she heard was “shackin’ up” – that is, living together.

My mother never made it past the tenth grade in high school, but she had a way of expressing herself. I miss it.