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My Nan's sayings

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G G Jean said:
I remember if I was round Nan's and was eating and it went down the way she would say "Choke up chicken".
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nijinski said:
Hi dave I'm still catching up on a lot of threads so forgive for being a bit slow. Did jake thackery sing the song about the nun with the hairs on her hands.I heard it on that's life. I always liked that song but I don't know the name of it. Regards nijinski
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Jake Thackery is buried in the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin, Welsh Newton, Monmouth. If anyone is interested. My uncle used to see him shopping and he always waved.
I was corrected by my partner who tells me Garou Garilla, Garou Gorille was actuallly written by Georges Brassens very similar to Jake Thackery.
 
Nico said:
Jake Thackery is buried in the churchyard of St Mary the Virgin, Welsh Newton, Monmouth. If anyone is interested. My uncle used to see him shopping and he always waved.
I was corrected by my partner who tells me Garou Garilla, Garou Gorille was actuallly written by Georges Brassens very similar to Jake Thackery.
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We have or she has a Georges Brassens L.P.
 
After a phrase or conversation had ended or at the end of a song, Nan would add, always sung, "Mother Murphy sells fish, three a'pence a dish"

If something was inferior she would call it, a tuppeny'apeney, whatever.

A barking dog made me recall another saying of hers today, which I know in it's original form is a poem,
"Hark! Hark! the dogs do bark, the beggars are coming to town,
Some in rags and some in bags and some in velvet gown.

Nan's version went.
'Ark!, 'Ark! the dogs do bark, the b@ggers (rhymes with ruggers) are comin' ta town,
Some in rags and trowserbags, and their britches all tumblin' down.

Which led me to another, watching Wimbledon,
Do yow lark tennis, Dennis? Or 'ockey, Cockey?
Or rugger ya........etc
And when they got in the scrum she shouted, bums up!

How old are you Nan? I would ask,
Arm old an' off it.
Or as old as me tongue an a little bit older than me teeth.
 
Nico said:
After a phrase or conversation had ended or at the end of a song, Nan would add, always sung, "Mother Murphy sells fish, three a'pence a dish"
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A quick trawl on the internet has Sally Mop Rag, Sally Walker, Sally White, Mr. Whirly and Mrs. Whirly also selling fish. One contributor suggests that the phrase could have anyone's name prefixed, so it might have been used to tease other children, particular if "don't buy it! don't buy it! it stinks when you fry it!" was sung at the end!
 
...something was inferior she would call it, a tuppeny'apeney, whatever....
@Nico

My Nan used to say that too but as 'I wouldn't give you tuppence halfpenny for it' if it was something she didn't like - it didn't actually have to be inferior!
 
My grandmother liked to recite the rhyme 'Adam and Eve and Pinch-Me went down to the river to bathe. Adam and Eve were drowned. Who do you think was saved?' And then she would pinch me gently. There was also 'Round and round the garden like a teddy bear. One step, two step, tickle under there!' which was a tickle under my armpit.
The strangest thing - and I'd love to know if anyone else has heard of this - occurred when I was very small and in my pushchair. She bought a fish from the fishmonger's and then she cut its head off. She then wrapped it in newspaper so that the head poked out and gave it to me, saying 'Here's a nice dolly for you!' Apparently I was delighted with it, and refused to be parted from it, so my mother was forced to take it and me together to Erdington Library.
 
Spargone said:
A quick trawl on the internet has Sally Mop Rag, Sally Walker, Sally White, Mr. Whirly and Mrs. Whirly also selling fish. One contributor suggests that the phrase could have anyone's name prefixed, so it might have been used to tease other children, particular if "don't buy it! don't buy it! it stinks when you fry it!" was sung at the end!
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My mate's Dublin mum sang, Fresh Fish! at the end of a song and sometimes she would add, mimicking the lady fish sellers of her youth,, If ya don't want the fish don't maul icht! I am trying to get the right pronunciation of her....." it."
 
Paula Bryars said:
My grandmother liked to recite the rhyme 'Adam and Eve and Pinch-Me went down to the river to bathe. Adam and Eve were drowned. Who do you think was saved?' And then she would pinch me gently. There was also 'Round and round the garden like a teddy bear. One step, two step, tickle under there!' which was a tickle under my armpit.
The strangest thing - and I'd love to know if anyone else has heard of this - occurred when I was very small and in my pushchair. She bought a fish from the fishmonger's and then she cut its head off. She then wrapped it in newspaper so that the head poked out and gave it to me, saying 'Here's a nice dolly for you!' Apparently I was delighted with it, and refused to be parted from it, so my mother was forced to take it and me together to Erdington Library.
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I heard the Irish version of, Round and round the garden,looking for a farthing, where shall we find it,? Underneath her arm. It was your comfort fish Paula! A little boy at school had a plastic Jiff lemon on a string and pulled it along.
 
Regarding "Arse up the Warwicks" (see Lulubelle above) I believe refers to the battles and sieges at Meteran in Flanders where the Royal Warwickshire regiment defended so stoutly from 1914 to 1918. Incidentally where Bernard Montgomery as a lieutenant in the Royal Warwicks was injured. THe men of the regiment used to hide out in fox holes and shoot the enemy. My Grandad told me it was always referred to as arsing abart the hun.
 
Whilst on holiday my friend and I were discussing our grandparents' sayings and she reminded me of one of her granddad's 'Well, dog bite Old Roper' - there is a book called Old Roper by John Rose but I couldn't find a connection.

Mom would often say 'none of your half-larks (arf larks) here' if we were playing up. No idea where that came from either.
 
If a teacher got on to me at school, Tell er to goo an fry er fairce in drippin! Or if someone was an old misery.

Lady Penelope, I got, .....You sit on that chair, an don't you dare move! like a threatening rhyme. Nan was overtly strict.
 
As it has happened to me recently I recalled Nan's ominous voice booming, "Dream of the dead, trouble with the livin'!"
and she often pronounced head as jed,
And dead as jed.
'ees braaan bread or 'eees jed. Or he can stond on iz jed.
 
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