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sayings

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well guys ;
i think you had better to start learning these amercan expressions
because lump it or refuse to except that amercian isation is coming sooner or later
look at our country ; and the way the yanks are telling us and we are rapididly changeing our systles there ways and ideas even our schols are going there way now we have alot of the american ways even our telephone systems we have alot of there ways here now
so start to used the expressions of our yankie friends or the other altneritive is german; [ cor what are we doing or should i say our goverment ]
loosing our identity best wishes astonian;
 
Well Guy,( I used to reply that to one of my million bosses) who addressed us ladies and gents with a, high guys are you really stacked? I also hate the use of the word genre. Makes me cringe. And another colleague who used to wave her 2 fingers either side of her head when she asked for a ball park figure. Had a mate used to say let's split the scene. Another friend says orgasmic for anything nice. Can't stand ya ya's prefer am yows. And its mo cootya (culture) innit, when it is not a person' culture. Innit for me is Welsh, innit boyyo. And MAN! shouted. and pants for no good. And you're burying me whatvere that means, I am glad I am no longer there. I did like the chap who used to say, gimme some skin and we would slap hands. I used to do the special handshake with a lovely mature caribbean lady, one of dad's carers.We also did one at work for a laugh saying it was the freemason' handshake, a bit like the elephant conga, if you get my drift? See there's another annoying one.
 
If I was moaning Nan would say. Oh never mind yer mother suck yer orange, and when I got bigger she would swap the words orange and mother. Naughty Nan. Nan was very naughty. I can't put on here half of what she said but she never cursed.
She said women that smoke in the street, have a hem lower than their coat, a loose hem, torn stockings, curlers in the street and went in to pubs or stood outside pubs, and worse still no stockings = were common. And women who have loud voices. I said, Nan you have a loud voice, and ducked!
 
Old Boy said:
Hi All,

When I was a lad and returned home to find my mother out I would ask my father "Where's Mom?" He invariably replied "She's gone off with a black man" Today, of course such a remark would be considered racist but in those days poiitical correctness did not exist and in any case the number of black men in the country was few and far between.

Old Boy
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My aunty used to say that to me, when I was wondering out load why my mom was late picking me up. Me being around 5 yrs old then, believed her. There was only one black man that I knew of in those days, and every time I saw him on the street, I would look at him suspiciously..
 
Fashionz said:
My aunty used to say that to me, when I was wondering out load why my mom was late picking me up. Me being around 5 yrs old then, believed her. There was only one black man that I knew of in those days, and every time I saw him on the street, I would look at him suspiciously..
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Nan's dog was called.....well it rhymed with bigger.
Just watched Wartime Farm and 'Ruth' said about the British girls dancing with black G.I's and the white American G.I's didn't like it and tried to enforce their racist ideas on to the British but they wouldn't have it.
Nan had a rude saying about a black man's anatomy which I can't put here. She said it when I used to say, it's not fair!
She also had them about any man's anatomy. And male ballet dancers. She said she learned a lot of it when she was in the NFS on night duty when she was on the switchboard.
 
my old man from tower st (1908)always said there is no such thing as bostin
always tried to speak the kings language even though it was diminishing fast
frank
 
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Re: Where have you been?

Carolina - my Mom used to say the same. Never knew what she meant by Hespurus though!!
 
carolina said:
If as kids we were untidy, mom used to say 'Look at yourself, you look like the wreck of the Hesperus!'
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My mum said it too but about her self. Or if I was untidy, it looks like Casey Court in here! If Nan was untidy she said she looked like she had come through a hedge back'uds. (forrads was forwards). She didn't like frocks with a belt, she said she looked like a bag of... (rhymes with fit) tied up ugly. One of my bosses said of a boistrous office that it was like a bear garden.
 
Nico - Same here "It looks like Casey's Court was another one in our house, as was 'you look like you've come through a hedge backwards'! Another thing Dad used to say if things were a mess or getting out of hand "Its like Fred Carno's circus"
 
Where was Casey's Court I wonder? Still no offers on Who Nanny Goon was? My ex boss used to say it's like Fred Carno's Army in here. Grandad's joke was what's the smallest thing in the world? A nit on a gnat's nut. Crazy people Nan described as yampy. She would say, ar wuz frit te death! And Good gom! Gt Gran told her off if she took the Lord's name in vain and said good god! My parents were given 2 bible tets for wedding presents. They were sad looking on bevelled glass I think. One was Serve the Lord with gladness.They were on chains as was the mirror the chains showed and they hung from the picture rail on big flat sort of sugar spoon shaped hooks.
 
A search suggests that Nanny Goon may well mean clothes being to long for the person wearing them. It is possibly of Glaswegian origin.
 
Just Googled Fred Carno - it is spelled Karno! He was well known in the theatre in the 1890's where he transformed music hall by creating a riot of laughter out of chaos and in silent films, working with comedians such as Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel - they were referred to as Fred Karno's Army which referred to a chaotic group.

Judy
 
My Great grandfather who lived in Smith Street Birmingham, wrote to his daughter who was away convalescing in the countryside
'What Ho fora country life’ and to be a farmers Boy. I would be in my oil tot’ 'I would be as happy as a pig in muck. Isn’t it nice to be in nice country lanes,all on your own and see the things growing that we in town only buy and eat'. This letter was written shortly after his wife died and within a few weeks of his own death, in 1924. They lived at 17 Smith Street, Hockley Birmingham, He was a keen gardener with an allotment....the location oof which remains unknown. 'Tot' I take as to be a term of enderement and 'in my oil' to be 'in my element'....

 
LNewey said:
My Great grandfather who lived in Smith Street Birmingham, wrote to his daughter who was away convalescing in the countryside
'What Ho fora country life’ and to be a farmers Boy. I would be in my oil tot’ 'I would be as happy as a pig in muck. Isn’t it nice to be in nice country lanes,all on your own and see the things growing that we in town only buy and eat'. This letter was written shortly after his wife died and within a few weeks of his own death, in 1924. They lived at 17 Smith Street, Hockley Birmingham, He was a keen gardener with an allotment....the location oof which remains unknown. 'Tot' I take as to be a term of enderement and 'in my oil' to be 'in my element'....
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Lovely letter indeed.
My mum and Nan used to say as happy as a pig in muck, or as happy as a sand boy.Grandad said like a dog with 2 tails. If someone spoke their mind as was straight nan would say, er's John Bull. I have heard oil tot before, on here I think. I think they then meant happy in their skin/ being themselves or happy with their daily lot.
 
Routon House was often heard when we were kids. Is it a general name for a house, or was there actually one in Birmingham?
 
Rowton House in Birmingham was one of a chain of working men's hostels built by Lord Rowton in the Victorian era.
I think the building in Birmingham is now a hotel.
 
Thanks A Sparks - they must have been all over, as the book I am reading about the moment is set in London and they talk about it.
 
That's very interesting Carolina!

There is more information about the Birmingham (and others, which were in London) Rowton Houses on this website;

https://www.workhouses.org.uk/RowtonBirmingham/

The first one was built in the Vauxhall area of London which is just over the river to where I work. The building is still there and part of it is now the head office of The Big Issue magazine.
 
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