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Me Dads old sayings

If the smileys were turned on for this thread Bernard I would be posting a shocked one.

Red hat, no drawers (or fur coat and no knickers) refers to prostitutes as prostitution was illegal they would wear a red hat so punters would recognise them. I believe it stems from c1920s but is there an earlier citation?
 
Haha! I remember my grandad saying that a lot when I was a kid, I took it quite literally at the time and always wondered why the elderly lady a few doors down, or indeed any other red hatted lady, was without her underwear.
 
That's funny thanks Jayessa & welcome to the Forum. One wonders if there were any more serious misunderstandings as Red Hats (and/or fur coats) were surely fairly common?
 
It meant people who liked to look well off, "ie posh curtains" but lived very cheaply "ie kippers,
I couldn't even afford the posh curtains,lol
 
Aidan said:
If the smileys were turned on for this thread Bernard I would be posting a shocked one.

Red hat, no drawers (or fur coat and no knickers) refers to prostitutes as prostitution was illegal they would wear a red hat so punters would recognise them. I believe it stems from c1920s but is there an earlier citation?
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I think the 'fur coat and no knickers' refers to social pretension rather than to the 'red hat' scenario ... aligned to 'all kippers and curtains' etc. Now, where did I leave my red cap...
 
I think you may be right there JohnO. But where did Collars & Cuffs come in? That's one I've never understood the origin of.
 
Two of my Dad's favourites :-
When a coin was tossed he would call "What a cat's got". Naturally they assumed the call was tails....... But a cat has a head too.

When he thought someone was telling a lie he would say, "You must think that I came up on the down train"
 
Two of my dads favourites,

"Up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire" time for bed, but one I never understood myself was,

If he saw a lady with her petticoat showing he would say "Charlie's Dead"
 
MY DAD WAS A BUTCHER BY TRADE,
THEY USED TO SPEAK WHAT WAS CALLED BUTCHERS BACK-SLANG,
IF THEY,D GET SOME OLD DEAR UM-IN AND R-IN,THEY WOULD USE IT.
WOC GIP AND SOME TIMES STRONGER..HAPPY DAYS DON,T KNOW IF THE STILL USE IT.
dereklcg
 
Deck my Mom's family were butchers and my uncles would talk in back slang a lot so I learnt quite a bit. I went to a local butchers when we first moved to Tamworth and they said something in back slang not rude but about me. I answered them in back slang and there faces were priceless! You don't hear it much now although I have heard it down the meat market.

Caldecott_butchers_shop.jpg
 
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Thanks Dek and Wendy for the photo's. My dad used to say about the height of a woman "her legs go right up to her bum". Well not quite that it began with A..
 
toch eno, retchtub yobbo, doog gels eemoking pew... https://people.sc.fsu.edu/~jburkardt/fun/wordplay/back_slang.html

I think it probably derived from the Costermonger's language (which would have included butchers, fishmongers and fruit & veg men) as described in London Labour and the London Poor: A Cyclopædia of the Condition and Earnings of Those That Will Work, Those That Cannot Work, and Those That Will Not Work, Vol. I (in Four Volumes) by English journalist Henry Mayhew (1812-1887) who was a founder and editor of the satirical magazine Punch c1850.

I need a Top O' Reeb after that.....
 
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looks like Royal Engineers Paul, My dad was the COs groom Ist Batt; Coldstream Guards 1914/1919 Bernard.(They
doubled up as bodyguards)
 
If a lady was not very pretty they would say avah kool ecaf. Roughly translated was have a look at the face on that. Terrible these butchers...lol
 
At work if we wanted to stop foreigners listening to us talking between ourselves in meetings, we used ordinary back slang in broad 'Brummie'. It was amusing to watch them, they could hear english but not understand it.
 
Dad says he and his mates had a secret speech, where the last two letters of the word were put at the front of - at least I think that's what he told me lol - he can still speak in it now!!
Sue
 
sistersue61 said:
Dad says he and his mates had a secret speech, where the last two letters of the word were put at the front of - at least I think that's what he told me lol - he can still speak in it now!!
Sue
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While helping my Dad at a factory in the Black country in the 60s. I had to move some rolls of steel on a small truck, this chap came over to give me a hand moving it, he said "BUSH PACK BUST A JIT MOT NUCH" much to my Dads amusement Which interpreted was PUSH BACK JUST A BIT NOT MUCH.
 
Remember my dad saying to me " pull yer frock down -yer showing your dodging" [meaning underskirt]. Also he used to talk about a "fist of fives" [clenched fist]. Miriam.
 
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