Unusual sayings

Callistemon

I've just learnt a new one on another thread.

As Euripides said you can’t step in the same river twice

Thank you 25Avalon!

No man ever steps into the same river twice, it's not the same river, he's not the same man. Heraclitus
I've long been familiar with this profound quote.

My mum used to say that, too.
You've just reminded me.

If someone was dithering about, or not getting on with a job, my Mum would say " Stop standing there like one o'clock half struck" !

I've just learnt a new one on another thread.

As Euripides said you can’t step in the same river twice

Thank you 25Avalon!

Mum lived in a very busy street. She used to say the only way to get across that road is to be born there!

My father said that in the Navy they used to have "jam sandwiches" that were "two bits of bread jammed together"!

My grandfather used to say ,"That tea's so weak it's nearly a fortnight."

What a touching story Maywalk.

nanna8

My grandma from Yorkshire used to talk about sidn’in the table for clearing it up and I always wondered what it meant until I asked a friend from there who is nearly 90 now. She said it is ‘Side on’the table, push stuff to one side ready for a meal.

In my part of Yorkshire, to 'side' something just meant to put/clear/ tidy it away, so "sidin' ('t) table" just meant "clearing the table".

Until I was in my twenties, I had no idea that the verb 'to side' wasn't standard English. It really should be!

This quote taken from the book I wrote after being evacuated from London to a town in the Midlands after a gruelling journey under fire from a Jerry while on the train.
That was over 80 years ago.
...............................
When we got to the Y.W.C.A. we were given a potted meat sandwich that was curled up at the edges and a black cup of tea but to us with being so hungry, dirty and tired it was like a four course meal.
I can recall someone saying that he was so hungry he could eat a " horse between two bread carts". I have never forgotten the giggle that went round our tired war weary group at that remark.

This won't buy the baby a new bonnet.

On the bathing babies theme:
Throwing the baby out with the bathwater

My Nanna used to say "6 o'clock and no baby bathed!" (or whatever time it was)

Even when ours were little in the 80s we had a daily routine of bathing them in the evening. Nowadays it seems they don't make a big thing of it and bath even newborns only every few days.

At school we used to say" What's the time? Half past nine, hang your knickers on the line. When they're dry, bring them in and iron them with a rolling pin. "

It's surprising how often I ask myself what's the time and it actually is half past nine, and the rhyme pops up in my head!

When my grandmother was sewing the hem of a wide shirt she used to complain that 'once round this, is twice round a gas tank,'

Grannmarie

MissAdventure, we say,

Do you think I came up the Clyde on a banana boat?

I’ve heard ‘D’you think I came up the Mersey on a tea tray?’
So, yes that one is possibly regional.

Our family said ‘And what’s that got to do with the price of fish?’ Also, ‘well, he had a face that only a Mother could love’ - about anyone who thought he was really something! ?

‘It’s like Fred Karno’s in here’ - describing a bit of a shambles - was more often ‘Bostock & Wombwells’ (pronounced Wombles) in my Granddad’s house. That was another old Circus.

A mad crowded place would be described by my Gran as they were ‘all together like the devil found sixpence!’ And she would say that anyone she felt was not truly straight in their business dealings was ‘artful as a cartload of monkeys’.

Grannmarie

MissAdventure, we say,

Do you think I came up the Clyde on a banana boat?

And, of course, we have a new variation on that now:

"I didn't float up the Lagan in a bubble"

Georgesgran

Similar sort of saying Kazzy - he couldn’t organised a piss-up in a brewery.

He couldn't organise a feast for pigeons in a cornfield.

My Dad when I was very little saying good night over the phone to me would end with “ Good bacon” ….?

MissAdventure

I was surprised to find there was actually a Wookey Hole.
It's a really interesting place!
Yes grandmafrench It's Newgates knocker, but it becomes Newgit around these parts.

Yes, we've been there and met the Witch of Wookey Hole ?‍♀️

'Life's too short' - a good saying- and true. Not worth getting knickers in a twist for words!

My grandma from Yorkshire used to talk about sidn’in the table for clearing it up and I always wondered what it meant until I asked a friend from there who is nearly 90 now. She said it is ‘Side on’the table, push stuff to one side ready for a meal.

He`s as happy as a pig in s..t
Is that really his face or is he breaking it in for popeye.
She`s got a face on her like a bull dog chewing a wasp.
You can stand a spoon up in that .......... strong tea.
He`s in his oil tot. A black country/ brummie saying.

As much use as an ashtray on a motorbike.

Similar sort of saying Kazzy - he couldn’t organised a piss-up in a brewery.

When a child if I asked Dad where mum was he would say " she's gone to see a man about a dog" Not sure what that was all about !?