Colloquialisms

A couple of months ago there was an article/story making the rounds on the internet about regional language and how different parts of the country uses different words or phrases to describe or label things.  For example, whether you call your carbonated beverage a soda, a pop, or a coke.  It was pretty interesting and entertaining.  Taking this thought a little further, I have always gotten a kick out of quirky colloquialisms that I have encountered throughout my years on this earth.  I guess there are colloquialisms that are common to certain regions, but the ones I remember most and that have stuck with me throughout the years, I more attribute to individuals that I heard using them than to the regions I lived.  I happened to have moved around quite a lot in my lifetime, so I have had an opportunity to pick up a few along the way.

The earliest unique phrases I remember are from my grandfather.  Granddad Kimball grew up and lived his entire life in Baltimore, MD.  I don’t know if the phrases I remember most are common to that area, common to his generation or just unique to my Grandfather.  The two rather unique phrases I remember most from my grandfather were uttered as substitute for more vulgar curse words.  My grandfather loved to play cards and that was a common occurrence when he would visit us.  His games of choice were crazy eights and pinochle.  Whenever he would lose a hand or someone would play a card he didn’t like, he would often blurt out either, “Judas Priest” or “Go to War”.  Now I have heard other people use the phrase “Judas Priest” before (not just referring to the British heavy metal band), but I have never encountered anyone else who says, “Go to war” when things don’t go their way.

The other phrases he would often use were: “since/when Hector was a pup”, to refer to something old or in the past; and, “more than Carter has liver pills”, referring to a large quantity.  These phrases were not unique to my grandfather but seem to be idioms from the early 1900’s that I most commonly heard from Granddad Kimball.

Another source of some rather unique phrases that I remember are from a long-time Pittsburgh Penguins radio announcer.  I used to pick up some of his broadcasts on a transistor radio I would listen to at night and loved to listen to his raspy voice and hilarious phraseology.  The two phrases he would often use that I still mimic today are: “beat like a rented mule”, if someone appeared really tired or when a goalie was faked out badly; and, “well, scratch my back with a chainsaw” when something really surprising happened on the ice.  For some reason, every time I repeat these phrases I have to do so in a really raspy voice.

When I lived in Richmond, VA in the mod to late ‘80s, I worked with a young lady who was born and raised in the outskirts of Richmond who was full of these quirky colloquialisms.  Unfortunately, the only one I remember today and often repeat when someone is in a sour mood is, “well, who licked the red off your apple?”

There are many more, some of which I can’t recall right now but will come to me as soon as I post this blog and others that I have long since forgot.  I have lived in the Pacific Northwest for five years now, but I haven’t really picked up any unique phrases that have caught my ear.  What about you?  Are there some unique idioms or phrases that you like to use or that you remember others using in your past?

I haven’t heard a good new one since Hector was a pup, so give me a good one and scratch my back with a chainsaw.