Mississippi Sayings

Living in northwest Georgia is a lot like living in rural north Mississippi where I grew up. The climate is relatively the same. The people here also talk as slow as “the coming of Chrissmas.”  There are more pickups than cars. They call mobile homes trailers. The rural hillsides are covered in kudzu. And on and on.

People seem to talk faster here, but this is coming from a Mississippi boy who has lived a lot of years in other countries. I am told that people talk more slowly in southern Georgia, but I don’t care to explore that part of the state because I am not sure about people who don’t know how to pronounce the word “pecan”—that delicious southern nut that graces so many desserts. After all, who would want to be close to anyone who calls a pecan a “pee-can.” Doesn’t sound very appetizing to me!

I have also found that both regions share some of the same non-standard language. But there are still quite a few colloquialisms that I have not heard in the peach state. My apologies to Georgians who also claim these Mississippi idioms.

When I was knee high to a grasshopper, I heard  one of my friends described this way: “That boy is as ugly as homemade sin.” Pore boy! I did not understand the meaning of homemade sin—still don’t!—but I just knew that the little bugga was not a handsome dude.

We almost never use the letter “g” at the end of words. I love bread puddin’. Cheryl’s cookin’ makes you good lookin’. 

What you fixin’ for suppah? I reckon I’m fixin’ to put on a pot of peas. Good ‘cause I need  sumpn to eat. Well, go get a piece of loaf bread to hold you over.

Come here and give me some sugah. Heavens to Betsy. Dear Gussie. Good night Miss Agnes. Good Lord willin’ and the creek don’t rise. Over yonder. Runnin’ around like a chicken with its head cut off. Off like a herd of turtles.

If someone is being “uppity," they are acting “too big for their britches.” “She thinks she’s so highfalutin’.”  That’s a pejorative term in the South and a huge put down on someone who’s trying to be extremely fancy when everyone knows she’s not. If a woman hears you describing her as uppity, back away because she will become madder than a wet hen, and she will shout, “Hush yo mouth.”

Bless her heart-- When a Southerner hears this expression, she knows what’s coming next…and it’s not going to be nice, and she will probably have a hissy fit. For example, “Bless her heart, she could make a preacher cuss.” We use the “bless her heart” phrase to excuse what comes out of our sassy Southern mouths.

Crazy as a Betsy bug. Chunk it to me. Slow as molasses. By the way, blackstrap molasses is my favorite. (Special treat: Try it on pimento cheese heated on top of a piece of cornbread.) Yummy!

Know what a thingamajig is? Of course, you do. It is another word for a whatchamacallit.

You rurnt your pants. You got grass stains all over them. You rurnt these potatoes. They taste scorched.

You can’t beat that with a stick. Shucks or shuckins.

This one is for my mother. She is 93 years old. I call her every day, and when she is ready to terminate our conversation, she will say, “Well let me let you go.” That’s her way of saying, “Larry, I am tired of talking to you and I have other things to do.” I could feel like she has treated me like a red-headed stepchild, but aw shucks, hold your horses, I know she loves me ‘cause she taught me to eat grits with sugar sprinkled over them.

I don’t remember ever hearing a cuss word from my mother. However, she has a few of her own expletives such as I swunnie (for I swear) or “Well I be Sam Hill”. Speaking of my mother, when we talk each day the topic of weather always comes up.  It’s comin’ up a cloud. It’s fairin’ off. It’s rainin’ cats and dogs. I love you mom a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck.

As I write about these fun pearls of wisdom, I am sitting at my desk eating some nabs and drinking a coke. Nabs? You know those Ritz peanut butter and crackers. I feel compelled to explain this one: the National Biscuit Company came out with a nickel package of peanut butter and crackers about 90 years ago and they were nicknamed “nabs.” People from the north probably do not remember this so they laugh at us Southerners calling them by their proper name—nabs.

That brings back some fond memories. As a youngster, when I had a dime, I would buy a bottle of coke and a package of Tom’s Toasted Peanuts. Pour those goobers into the coke and watch it foam. Fine dining! Makes me hungry just thinking about that snack.  

I used the word cattywampus so much as a child that I blame that word on my CDO condition. CDO, by the way, is not a Southern term, but it is an acronym for OCD—in its proper alphabetical order!

Well, I declare, I am plumb wore out trying to think of more southern sound bites.

Hold your horses. I have one more thing to say: For you northerners who try to imitate southern people—don’t go there. That is a universal Southern dislike, and we can always spot those movie and TV actors who think they are slicker than a slop jar and try to speak Southern.

This has been fun for me and I hope that it has left you grinnin’ like a possum!