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My Nan's sayings

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Yes Nico, a funny name definitely. Lots of people have trouble saying it especially if English isn't their first language. Some of my friends at school called me 'loppy-lugs' which I have to admit I wasn't keen on!

I wondered if your Nan ever said somebody was 'up the pole'? My Mom used to use it to say someone wasn't well but I haven't heard anyone else say it.
 
Yes Nico, a funny name definitely. Lots of people have trouble saying it especially if English isn't their first language. Some of my friends at school called me 'loppy-lugs' which I have to admit I wasn't keen on!

I wondered if your Nan ever said somebody was 'up the pole'? My Mom used to use it to say someone wasn't well but I haven't heard anyone else say it.
Yes she said up the pole for yampy. And up the spout for pregnant. I forgot loppy lugs. Buggalugs etc.
 
"Up the pole" was also the name of a radio comedy show with Jummy Jewell & Ben Warris in the 1950s. "Round the bend", meaning roughly the same, was also a radio show with Michael Bentine a few years later.

Maurice :cool:
 
I remember Michael Bentine's Potty Time and Round the Horn.

Nan said up the shoot for broken. Or of course bostid or bust. Gooin to the knackers yard, when she felt rough, stinkin' to 'igh 'eaven if something went off.
Of smelly women, 'er wants to give er raw mate a wash (rhymes with mash) Ar reckon 'ers bin on the nest all the neet. Thankfully I didn't understand. 'Ers a nasty bag a washin' rhymes with flashin'. 'ers a baggage.
I was just thinking, how I remember so much of Nan's vast repertoire. I was lucky enough to have had my Nan for 42 years and remembered her for 38 or 39. I was with her a lot and she never let up. Yow'm like a broken record on an' on an' on. Just shut yer trap, shut yer clarnet. Little byes should be seen an' not 'eard.
 
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"Round the bend" was quite a few years before "Round the Horn", Nico. I did have quite a few them on reel-to-reel tape, but I don't think that they came with me to Crete.

Maurice :cool:
 
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Never heard that expression before, Nico.

Maurice :cool:
Maybe they are her own sayings. Nan struggled often with her H's. She had two aunts, Hetty and Etty but she called both Etty.I used to get mixed up and she got exasperated trying but the H on.
 
Her one aunty Etty was nice and one was a dragon, cousins, both spinster schoolmistresses so I used to ask mum which one she was on about. She would just shrug and laugh and say, search me!. There were actually three Etty's! But one had a different surname. Henrietta, Harriet and Esther.

Struth! that was another of her sayings. I know that comes from God's truth.
 
Yes, my Dad used to say "Strewth", as do many Australians. In fact, that seemed to be his favourite exclamation of surprise. But I never heard either of my parents swear, yet Dad was in the Army during WW1. The general place where most of use encountered it.

Maurice :cool:
 
Yes, my Dad used to say "Strewth", as do many Australians. In fact, that seemed to be his favourite exclamation of surprise. But I never heard either of my parents swear, yet Dad was in the Army during WW1. The general place where most of use encountered it.

Maurice :cool:
Mine never swore either. Or my grandparents. Not even bloody. Dad might say..... what rhymes ruggered, when he came in from work, Nan said ruddy, grandad, blummin ann. I got my 'language' from the playground or gran's rough neighbours.
 
Eenie Meanie Miny Mo
Put the babby on the poe

I won't continue Nan was very graphic,

Throoshin' for straining.

Parky for sharp cold, or a sharp wind, like recently.

Wants me there. Arl show em!

Toad for told, I was toad off.

Arm a comin' on a donkey open the gairt an let me in. Nan sang this line twice but I don't know if there was any more.

Of a blustery wind, it's blowin' round the 'ouses, an blowin' up me trowsiz
 
What a fabulous thread.... Really cheered me up.. Thank you!

'You'll wait 'til the cows come home' was an expression used in my family.

Annie
Nan would be in her element. She played to an audience as she got older. I am surprised how much I remember
 
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