Funny sayings of old time country folk

I don’t know whether this was particular to my family, but whenever we would be doing something cool, maybe seeing a sunset over the lake, or eating great barbecue on a beautiful day, or homemade ice cream…—the idea being we felt lucky to be us in that moment—one of my parents would say “I wonder what the poor folks are doing?”
 
“The cream always rises to the top.”

“It’s not worth the salt,”

“A Sunday driver,”

I think someone mentioned this, but my dad thought a lot of people didn’t have “a lick of sense.”

“”Money doesn’t grow on trees,”

My dad was in politics, and one cynical recommendation was never to be found (in bed) with a dead girl or a live boy.

Things so obvious that it was stupid not to know them—“that’s in Ned’s first reader.”
 
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“Growed like Topsy.”

“Clear as mud.”

“Much obliged…”

“You are a gentleman and a scholar.”

“Lickettysplit.”

“Make an honest woman out of her….” (If maybe she was “in a family way.”)

“He’s a little touched in the head,”

“Raining cats and dogs.”

“Shot himself in the foot,”

I hope these aren’t too simple; just remembering how my parents talked.
 
“Now, hold your horses, mister.”

“She’s as (wh@tever) as the day is long.”
“He’s doing (wh@tever) like it’s going out of style.”

And, whenever the person did not hear or understand , they would say,…. “Do what, now?”
 
I remember my Grandmother a few times when someone would stop by for visit would say something I never heard anyone else say.

After greetings and sitting down in the living room, my Grandmother would say to the visitor(s): can I offer you anything to eat, drink or rub on?

Always cracked me up.
 
When somebody is acting like he's in a big hurry to leave:

"Are you taking medicine or something?"
 
Say these when somebody's in a rush or driven:

He's hot to trot

He's got a burr up his ***
 
From the not exactly politically correct drawer:

That guy's as queer as a three dollar bill.
 
VYFan said:
I don’t know whether this was particular to my family, but whenever we would be doing something cool, maybe seeing a sunset over the lake, or eating great barbecue on a beautiful day, or homemade ice cream…—the idea being we felt lucky to be us in that moment—one of my parents would say “I wonder what the poor folks are doing?”
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Nah.... I suspect you spent a lot of time in your youth at horse shows and regattas.

:beertoast:
 
Chop said:
Nah.... I suspect you spent a lot of time in your youth at horse shows and regattas.

:beertoast:
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Well, for context, my dad grew up depression poor, and my mother was raised in the Masonic Home orphanage, so they weren’t making fun of poor people; but whenever they became self-conscious that life was really special around them, they would always say, “I wonder what the poor folks are doing right now,” kind of as a nod to how far they had come (and that they still identified themselves as poor, even though the proof around them was that they were not). I have no idea whether they made that inside joke up themselves or it came from somewhere else. In other words it was actually humility and gratefulness, not elitism.
 
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