How Many Recognize these Phrases and their Contexts

[BobH]

Those of you who didn't grow up in the US might not recognize these phrases, but they were common in my youth. Most of them will not mean anything to those under 50 yoa, perhaps. Some of them might be Southern US colloquialisms.

Posted to see how many will recognize their meaning and context.

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Be sure to refill the ice trays, we're going to have company.

Watch for the postman, I want to get this letter to Willie in the mail
today.

Quit slamming the screen door when you go out!

Be sure and pull the windows down when you leave, it looks like a shower is coming up.

Don't forget to wind the clock before you go to bed.

Wash your feet before you go to bed, you've been playing outside all day
barefooted.

Why can't you remember to roll up your britches legs? Getting them caught in the bicycle chain so many times is tearing them up.

You have torn the knees out of that pair of pants so many times there is
nothing left to put a patch on.

Don't you go outside with your school clothes on!

Go comb your hair, it looks like the rats have nested in it all night.

Be sure and pour the cream off the top of the milk when you open the new bottle.

Take that empty bottle to the store with you so you won't have to pay a
deposit on another one.

Put a dish towel over the cake so the flies won't get on it.

Quit jumping on the floor! I have a cake in the oven and you are going to
make it fall if you don't quit!

Let me know when the Fuller Brush man comes by, I need to get a few things from him.

You boys stay close by, the car may not start and I will need you to help
push it off.

There's a dollar in my purse, get 5 gallons of gas when you go to town.

Open the back door and see if we can get a breeze through here, it is
getting hot.

You can walk to the store; it won't hurt you to get some exercise.

Sit closer to the radio, don't turn it up so loud.

If you pull that stunt again, I am going to wear you out!

Don't lose that button; I won't be able to sew it back on.

Wash under your neck before you come to the table, you have beads of dirt
and sweat all under there.

Get out from under the sewing machine; pumping it messes up the thread.

Be sure and fill the lamps this morning so we don't have to do that tonight
in the dark.

Here, take this old Sears and Roebuck catalog to the toilet with you when
you go, we are almost out of paper out there.

Go out to the well and draw a bucket of water so I can wash dishes.

Don't turn the radio on now, I want the battery to be up when the Grand Ole Opry comes on.

No! I don't have 10 cents for you to go to the show. Do you think money
grows on trees?

Eat those turnips, they'll make you big and strong like your daddy.

That dog is NOT coming in this house! I don't care how cold it is out there,
dogs don't stay in the house.

Sit still! I'm trying to get your hair cut straight and you keep moving and
it is all messed up.

Hush your mouth! I don't want to hear words like Dad Gummit! I'll wash your mouth out with soap!

It is time for your system to be cleaned out. I am going to give you a dose
of castor oil tonight.

If you get a spanking in school and I find out about it, you'll get another
one when you get home.

Quit crossing your eyes! They will get stuck that way!

Soak your foot in this pan of kerosene so that bad cut won't get infected.

When you take your driving test, don't forget to signal each turn.

Left arm straight out the window for a left turn;

Left arm bent up at the elbow for a right turn;

And straight down to the side of the door when you are going to stop.

It's: 'Yes Ma'am!' and 'No Ma'am!' to me, young man, and don't you forget
it!

Hurry up and finish drying the dishes so we can go "ketch sum lightnin' bugs
and put 'em in a jar".

Y'all come back now, ya hear.

If You Can't Fix It With A Hammer - You've Got An Electrical Problem

[mishmish3000]

Those were great! The only ones I never heard were:
--Be sure and pour the cream off the top of the milk when you open the new bottle.
--Put a dish towel over the cake so the flies won't get on it.
--Let me know when the Fuller Brush man comes by, I need to get a few things from him.
--You boys stay close by, the car may not start and I will need you to help
push it off.
--Be sure and fill the lamps this morning so we don't have to do that tonight
in the dark.
--Here, take this old Sears and Roebuck catalog to the toilet with you when
you go, we are almost out of paper out there.
--Go out to the well and draw a bucket of water so I can wash dishes.
--Don't turn the radio on now, I want the battery to be up when the Grand Ole Opry comes on.
--Soak your foot in this pan of kerosene so that bad cut won't get infected.

But most of the others I heard from Dad at some point in time growing up. Mom had sayings too but they tended to be more Northeastern sayings, since she was from around Boston.

Let's go get a frappe!
I want jimmies on my ice cream.
Don't get your sneakers wet!
Do you want a soda?
and others: http://www.bu.edu/mfeldman/Boston/wicked.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[mishmish3000]

http://www.tekstlab.uio.no/cambridge_survey/maps/20" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The survey itself is fairly interesting. I was certainly struck by this map and the "aunt/ant" map, ad the sneaker/gym shoe map. Quite noticeable areas on the maps!

[John Gray]

It seems that American parents are quite verbally aggressive towards their children!
And a bit short on "please" and "thank you"...

[John Gray]

What word(s) do you use in casual speech to address a group of two or more people?

Clearly "Hello, chaps!".

[stuck]

"Don't forget to wind the clock before you go to bed"
is heard frequently in our house; we have a genuine Swiss cuckoo clock that must be wound each day. We bought it on our first trip to Switzerland back in 1985.

Ken

[mishmish3000]

But there's "Bless your heart", "ThankKEW", "Ya'll come back, now..."
I would have said "Yes, sir!" but my father always had a comeback for that--"Don't call me SIR! I'm a sergeant! I WORK for a living!" (so I said, "Yes, First Sergeant!" instead, for a very long time.)

[BobH]

It seems that American parents are quite verbally aggressive towards their children!
And a bit short on "please" and "thank you"...

Interesting observation! To my ears, there is verbal aggression in only a few of those statements . . . those that threaten consequences for failing to observe them; but most do not carry that threat as used.

In my experience, the British are very polite people; and I admire that about them.

In the US, my experience has been that parents do not use the 'please' and 'thank you' with their children as you observed. This does not show a lack of respect nor a lack of polite manners but is, I think, a reflection of a more open and casual attitude found among Americans at home.

Most American parents of only a few years ago insisted on 'please' and 'thank you' for interacting with non-family members. I think this has diminished, lamentably, over the last 30 or so years here.

[garbsmj]

Sigh...I must be ancient - I heard them all and even one concerning a buttonhook. Did not actually do some of them but heard them.

[mishmish3000]

We always had "please" and "thank you" (occasionally, "thank you, sweetie!") at our home. But we also had "Yes, Sir (or First Sergeant)!" or "Yes, ma'am"...

Some of these on-line quizzes that purport to show you where you're from, based on your accent, are a bit erroneous. One placed me in Buffalo, NY. I don't think I've ever been there, but I know someone who is. I guess being a military brat sort of skews my placement by accent.

[Timelord]

Why would you pour the cream off the milk? That was the best part. Pour milk into the cereal and top it off with the cream. We used to have 'discussions' on who got the cream that day.

[HansV]

I assume that the cream had to be poured into a separate container, not down the drain...

[Claude]

The cream used to be skimmed off, when we had real milk delivered by horse and cart, and used for things delicious, like stiff cream with fruit salad and the like. (Oooops, showing my age again)

[DaveA]

Yes, the cream was saved to make whip cream, ice cream, and even butter when it soured.

And yes, I had heard every one of the above listed sayings, and my family was not from the South, but the Indiana and Nebraska areas. How ever, before Indiana, the family were from South Carolina and were of the Irish decent.

[ChrisGreaves]

Those of you who didn't grow up in the US might not recognize these phrases...

"Get a bucket of chips for the bath heater"
(mallee root chips from the woodpile at the end of the back yard, for the "chip heater", converted from kerosene-fired (expensive) to wood-fired (free) to heat bathwater in wintertime in Southern Cross, Western Australia.)
My summer job was to wipe around the bathtub when I'd finished, then refill the bath with water from the cold-water tap in the hopes that after 23 hours had passed the water would be cool enough for my sister to get in, followed by Mum, Dad, and then me. The bottom of the totem pole was always the dirtiest one ...

[mishmish3000]

How about "up to snuff"?

[hlewton]

Well I heard them all at one time or another. The cream on the milk bottles used to pop the caps off in cold weather if you didn't get to them quickly after the milkman delivered them and I had to take castor oil a few times.

[mishmish3000]

Not cod liver oil? I remember that! Wheeew!

[viking33]

I own up to knowing and hearing all of them, plus all from the other posts except ChrisG.
and ( the Castor oil was different from the Cod Liver Oil )

How about, drink this bottle of Citrate of Magnesia, that will "clean you out!"
Don't get caught in a draft, you'll catch a cold.
Throw some ashes on the icy front walkway.

[hlewton]

Not cod liver oil? I remember that! Wheeew!

Yep you're right. I remembered that and came back to edit it. Sorry for the confusion.