Today is Mother’s Day and so I start this post with a hug to all the moms, grandmas, aunts, sisters, cousins and other special ladies in our family. My 95-year old mom is physically doing fine, but her mental capacity is gone. She rarely remembers any of her children, and it’s not possible to carry on a conversation with her. Today, while I remember my mom, it is with a sense of sadness that 70-years of my life, talking with her, sharing genealogy information with her, arguing with her, cooking with her, laughing with her, and having my feet rubbed by her are gone.
It also seemed fitting that today we remember some of the sayings our moms and other family members used to say to make a point with us growing up. And so, today I think about and share a few of those family sayings:
We all have them. Family sayings that have a message but are often skirted in humor.
As children, when we left a door open, my mom would always say “Shut the front door. We’re not heating for the birds.” I can still hear her say that, and I will admit that I never leave a door open, even though I live in southern California where it is never cold enough to want to heat for the birds.
The Linns were/are great card players. Put the Linns together with a pot of coffee – or two – and a card game will break out. If you were with the Linns when Pete and Maude hosted a night of cards, you heard Grandma Maude Linn say “Give me some kings, give me some aces, give me some cards, I’m going places.” And if I remember right, she had to be facing the way the bathtub faced for good luck. I still say this phrase and I think my brothers do as well. Where did Grandma learn these phrases and superstitions?
In our family, we also heard “I got a hand like a foot (playing cards)” and “I’m so mad I could crush a grape.”
Grandpa Pete Linn would often finish a story with “That’s what makes me so slick.”
To the boys in our family, mom would say “If you don’t tuck in your shirt, I’m going to sew lace on the bottom.” I imagine that worked quite well!
I always said “shoot a pickle,” a phrase I learned from a college roommate. And that phrase kept my language in check! Somewhere I learned to say “flush that puppy down” and passed it on to our grandsons for when they finished their bathroom duty. They think it’s hilarious!
What family sayings do you have, do you remember? Your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, or great-grandparents? Let’s share a few, especially if they are from our Linn or Olofson folks. I’m sure you heard and remember some that I don’t recall, and I’d love to hear them.
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