Blind Pig & The Acorn

Appalachian Grammar Lesson 13

Have you ever been around someone who puts an 'a' before certain words? If you have-you've probably heard phrases like:

• I've been a-working at this all day long and ain't got it done yet!
• Granny's a-keeping that little girl who lives down the road today.
• There was ice on the back porch this morning and as soon as I stepped on it I started a-falling and a-stumbling all over the place.

I've heard folks add an 'a' before words all my life. I would tell you that I don't add the prefix of 'a' to words-but my family has informed me I do. There was a vote taken-and it was unanimous-apparently on a regular basis I say "I'm a-going down to Granny's I'll be back in a little while."

I consulted my Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English to see what it had to say on the subject of adding an 'a' to words. According to the Dictionary using 'a' as a prefix to other words is derived from the Old English preposition an/on.

I'm a-hoping you'll leave me a comment and tell me if using the prefix of 'a' before words is common in your area.

Tipper

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Appalachia Through My Eyes - Living Daylights

One day this week I heard Chitter asking her Daddy about daylight-more specifically why it was staying daylight longer in the evenings than it had been.

Their conversation reminded me of the photo above. I took it on our porch last summer-I was trying to get a shot of a piece of found art we have hanging on the wall. Its a small piece of dried wood with a piece of barb-wire growing through it. The sun was shining brightly just off the end of the porch-just about to peek around the edge of the house. When I loaded the photo on the computer-I was surprised at the colors my camera picked up in the rays of sunlight-its almost like I captured daylight.

Like me-you've probably heard the sayings about daylight your whole life-ones like:

• He scared the ever living daylights out of me
• He beat the daylights out of me
• I knocked the daylights out of him

On The Phrase Finder website I discovered during the 18th Century daylights literally meant eyes. Here is a direct quote from the website:

Usage of 'daylights' was largely limited to the eyes and to threats to close them by force. The first known citation of the word is one such example, in Henry Fielding's novel Amelia, 1752:

"Good woman! I don't use to be so treated. If the lady says such another word to me, d--n me, I will darken her daylights."

The Phrase Finder website pointed out using the plural daylights made sense-since we have 2 eyes. The article also stated that the 1987 James Bond movie-The Living Daylights was responsible for bringing the term back into common usage.

As far as I know the use of the word daylights has never went out of fashion in Appalachia.

Tipper

Appalachia Through My Eyes - A series of photographs from my life in Southern Appalachia.

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Chatter & Chitter's Trek To Hollywood Makes A Stop In WV

Remember when Chatter and Chitter couldn't believe they were gonna be in a movie?

Well since seeing the almost finished movie back in October they are now in danger of getting the big head about the whole thing!

Actually-the girls and I still can't believe we ended up in a movie. The version we saw back in the fall was the almost finished version-with the story and most of the scenes the way they would be in the final movie-but with additional sound editing yet to be done.

Before viewing the almost completed movie-I thought it would be good-I mean how could it not be-it had my children in it? But when I thought back to the days we spent shooting our scenes at the old house-I was slightly nervous. Not that we didn't have a ball of fun-cause we did. I guess it was more that the filming process/directing process wasn't as precise as what I imagined it would be. Bruno and Harrison (Directors and Producers) kinda told us the gist of the scene we were about to film and let us come up with our lines on our own.

Turns out-the movie wasn't just good it was great! There were parts of it that were so real so perfect I felt like weeping-while other parts had the entire audience laughing. It is truly a movie everyone can relate to-a tale about a boy finding his way with the story of old time music woven along the road he finds himself traveling on.

My part was cut down to one line-I was so glad-with only one line-I don't sound silly at all. And my one line is a phrase I've had lots of practice saying since I had the girls. Chatter and Chitter have bigger parts-but still play only a minor roll in the story of the movie.

One of the main characters in the movie is Tim Ryan from right here in Brasstown. After the show was over and we were all discussing how good it was Tim said "it's like they got us together, let us act like ourselves and somehow made a movie of it." Tim is right-Bruno, Harrison, and Forrest had the story in their heads-and its like they magically got us to tell it even though we didn't even know the story!

Another friend from Brasstown told me she enjoyed the movie as much as I did-but she was anxious to see how folks who weren't familiar with western NC-who didn't have a connection to the film would feel about it. Well we're about to find out.

The movie is finished-it now has a real name: If I Had Wings To Fly-and its first showing in a film festival is right around the corner. The movie will be part of the Appalachian Film Festival in Huntington, West Virginia. If I Had Wings To Fly will start the festival on Thursday February 23 at the Black Sheep venue.

If you live in the Huntington WV area-I hope you'll check out the movie. I'm hearing-it won't be too long till If I Had Wings To Fly will be shown in Asheville, NC-I'll be sure to keep you updated on the details of future showings. Till then-Chatter and Chitter will be taking it easy-keeping their sunglasses handy just in case anyone recognizes them on the street.

Tipper

p.s. If you want more info about the movie check out their website Kazoo Films-and you can go here: Chitter & Chatter Are Headed To Hollywood to read my first post about the movie-which includes an interview with Bruno Seraphin and Harrison Topp.

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Deep Elem Blues

Back in January of 2009 I wrote about having the blues-more specifically the wintertime blues, the baby blues, the lovesick blues-I'm sure you get the picture. You can jump back in the Blind Pig archives to see the post in its entirety: Have You Got The Blues?

The blues post started out with a photo of ice built up on the inside of my kitchen window. There are no worries of that happening this January-its been in the 60s here in western NC.

A few other updates from the post:

• We no longer have the dial up blues-we're really uptown now with only the occasional "satellite internet blues."
• The girls haven't been suffering from the "grounded for being a slacker at school blues" in a long time-but with all the extra studying there's hardly any time left for contra dancing.
• Along with most of the US we're still suffering from the "lowdown mean I'm broke and ain't got no money blues."
• One other thing that hasn't changed-is how much I love Paul's version of the song Deep Elem Blues. The song has such entertaining lyrics you gotta love it for that-but add Paul's insane picking and emotion filled vocals and its pefection. I mean what goes on between his head and his fingers that makes those awesome sounding guitar breaks come out?

The old blues song has various titles-depending on who you ask-to name a few: Deep Elm Blues, Deep Elem Blues, or Deep Ellum Blues.  Its been around since the 1930s and has been recorded by various artists over the years including The Grateful Dead. Deep Elm was a red light district in Dallas Texas you can go here to read more about the history of the song.

As is the case with many old songs, the lyrics vary depending on the person performing it. Here's the ones Paul sings:

Well I went down to the bottoms to see my Mary Lou She was dancing with a stranger she had taken off her shoes Oh sweet Momma your Daddys got the Deep Elem Blues Oh sweet Momma Daddys got the Deep Elem Blues

Well I told that trifling woman Told her what I was going to do If she don't quit her rambling I'm going ramble too Oh Little Momma your Daddys got the Deep Elem Blues Oh Little Momma Big Daddys got the Deep Elem Blues

Well I once knew a Preacher preached the Bible through and through till he went down to Deep Elem Now his preaching days are through Oh Little Momma your Daddys got the Deep Elem Blues I said oh now Momma Poppas got the Deep Elem Blues

Well I wish I was an apple hanging on the tree Every time Mary Lou came by she could take a bite of me Oh now Momma your Daddys got the Deep Elem Blues I said oh now Mommason Daddyson got the Deep Elem Blues

Give it a listen and see if you like it as much as I do. (don't forget to stop the music player in the top right of this page before you start the video)

Got any variety of the blues at your house?

Tipper

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Appalachia Through My Eyes - The Big Eye

Do you ever get the big eye? A day or so ago, a lady at work was telling me about the newest Internet rage-Pinterest. Its sorta like an online bulletin board where you can 'stick' your favorite online things. I told her I already knew about it-that one of my friends told me it would suck up all your time if you let it. The lady said "Well last night I had the big eye so it helped me pass the hours away."

Its very rare that I get the big eye-sleep is something I do very well. In The Deer Hunter's younger days he got the big eye a lot! These days not so much-I'm happy for him-and for the rest of us who aren't always the quietest bunch to live with when you're trying to sleep.

Ever suffer from the big eye? Have you heard insomina called the big eye before?

Tipper

p.s. The eye-is Chatter's-and the photo is a self portrait. When the girls get ahold of my camera I never know what photos will show up on it. If its Chatter-then its a sure bet there'll be a few pics of her eyes-she really likes them. I do too.

Appalachia Through My Eyes - A series of photographs from my life in Southern Appalachia.

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The Best Apple Pie

Chitter has been asking for an apple pie-so over the weekend I made her one. The recipe I use makes the best ever apple pie and its easy-peasy too.

The recipe calls for a double crust-so either get out your favorite pastry recipe and whip 2 up-or do I like I do and buy a box from the refrigerator section of your grocery store.

I unroll one of the pie pastries and lay it in a regular size pie plate.

Slice your apples-I think I used 6 small apples for this pie-but I usually just slice up as many as it takes to fill the pie shell.

Cut a 1/2 stick of butter into cubes;

sprinkle the cubed butter on top of the apples, along with 2 tablespoons of plain flour and 1 cup of sugar (my apples were really sweet-so I backed the sugar up to 3/4 of a cup).

Next-gently lay the 2nd pie crust pastry on top. I fold it under the bottom shell-and give it a good pinch all the way around to seal them togehter.

Once I've secured the 2 pie pastries together-I go back around squeezing the crust between my thumb and index knuckle to give the pie a scalloped edge.

I brush an egg white on top of the crust-and cut several holes in it to allow steam to escape.

Lastly-I sprinkle sugar over the top and bake it for 1 hour in a 350 degree oven.

This photo is proof that its the best apple pie. I set it on the counter to cool-and when I came back to take my photo of the finished pie-almost half of it was already gone.

If you're a long time reader of the Blind Pig & the Acorn you may be thinking-"That is just like Miss Cindy's Blueberry Pie-but with apples." If you are-you'd be right! It is the same recipe-it turns out great no matter what fruit you use.

For a quicker-less heavy apple pie-check out Aunt Mary Jo's Apple Pie-its good too!

Tipper

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Appalachia Through My Eyes - Baby Swings

On the day we went to get wood, I walked around taking photos of the beautiful scenery while the men stood around and talked. As I looked up the hill the silhouette of an old swing caught my eye.

I'm sure you've seen the swings before-they're made from pliable rubber like material-and have places for the child's legs to stick through the material. Some people call them baby swings-because you generally need to be lifted into them to swing. I guess I was feeling a little nostalgic-and thought how sad the swing sat empty after years of use from its owner and my girls-all of whom are too old to swing in it now.

I walked on down the road to see what I could see and on my way back to the truck of firewood-I glanced back at the swing-only this time I saw something different.

I saw 3 teenage girls. One had manged to get into the swing; one stood behind the tree to push her off; and the other stood in front to agg it all on. It made me happy to know-that even though I thought their swinging days were behind them-they all 3 knew better.

Tipper

Appalachia Through My Eyes - A series of photographs from my life in Southern Appalachia.

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Rich Pine Flowers

When I first decided to write about rich pine I googled around to see what had already been written about the subject. There were a few articles and blog posts on rich pine-but not nearly as many as I thought there would be.

I did find an especially interesting blog post about making flowers with rich pine or fat lighter as the gentleman who wrote the post called it. He didn't actually make flowers-he was making fire starter kits for a boy scout meeting-they just happen to look like flowers.

As soon as I saw them I knew I wanted to try to make them. You can click here to jump over and see how he made his-we used a slightly different method to make ours.

Luky for me-when we went on our rich pine hunt-we found several trees of rich pine with their small branches still intact-and fully formed into rich pine themsleves.

First we cut about a 5 inch length of rich pine from one of the branches-you can see the diameter was small.

 

The Deer Hunter carefully shaved all the outer bark from the piece. We tried using the method from the blog post I found-but all our 'petals' kept falling off. The Deer Hunter came up with the idea of carefully starting at the top of the piece and pulling the shavings toward you-stopping about half way down the length of wood.

As you pull the shavings-turn the piece as you go-pulling shavings from all sides. Eventually the top piece will sharpen into a point and fall or break off easily leaving the flower behind. The top piece can be used as a fire starter as well.

Our method requires a sharp knife-and a steady hand. The method used in the blog post I found-of pushing the shavings away from you-would be safer for children and adults. We just couldn't get it too work. Perhaps the author of the blog post had sharper tools or his rich pine was split differently. Either way-the flower fire starters would be good to take along on your next camping trip-or just for building a fire at home. They smell so good I may just use them as air freshners.

Tipper

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Appalachia Through My Eyes - Don't Blare Your Eyes At Me

Ever heard the word 'blare' used to describe someones eyes? See Chitter's face in the pic above-when she looks at me like that I say "Don't blare your eyes at me."

I've heard blare used in relation to someones eyes my entire life. Another example-Pap might say "Now he was hot. He looked up there at them, blared his eyes, and said "No Sir that ain't gonna happen here!"

I checked my Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English to see if the word was listed there-it's not. I did find it on this website: Jim McManners - Ferryhill/Cassop C20/mid. Mr. McManners has compiled a list of words he heard used in the 50s and 60s when he was growing up in England. Only in his area of the UK the word is used to mean cry-as in "She blared her eyes out after she lost her dog."

After I started thinking about the word-I tested my girls and one of their friends. I asked them "If I told you not to blare your eyes at me would you know what I meant?" They all 3 said yes-and all agreed I would be telling them not to cut their eyes at me or give me a dirty look.

So the use of the word blare in relation to eyes is alive and well in Brasstown NC-what about where you live?

Tipper

Appalachia Through My Eyes - A series of photographs from my life in Southern Appalachia.

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Say What - Colorful Language From Yesterday

I so enjoyed reading all of your wonderful comments on yesterday's Say What? post. As Kris pointed out-every region of the world-Australia in his case-has their own unique sayings. Whatever the area-I believe people ought to hold on to them and use them-so they'll be passed on to the coming generations.

Jim's point about old sayings being common in Appalachia was a good one-and he even used a saying to say it!

A few other things that jumped out at me from yesterday's comments:

• John-who lives over the big pond said this in reference to my "If you're going to dance you'll have to pay the fiddler" saying: "He who pays the fiddler calls the tune" may well be the original saying, that's what I used to hear when I was small, in other words "when you start to pay your way around here you can have things how you want them!" Since so much of our language came from the British Isles-I bet John is right.
• Brian Blake said: "For the love of Pete probably refers discreetly to Saint Peter, without taking the Lord's name in vain." A few of you mentioned the saying For Pete's Sake-bet that one is in reference to Saint Peter too.
• Pam Moore told about a saying I've never heard-one with a very interesting story behind it: "My mom would always say that we had "enough food to feed Cox's army". I asked her who Cox was and she said she didn't know, it was just something that her parents said. I did some research and found out that there were two Coxs. During the Depression, in 1932, a priest named Cox led a march on Washington, DC consisting of unemployed men from Pennsylvania. In 1894, another depression year, Jacob Coxey led a protest march into Washington, DC to ask that jobs be created. I thought it was interesting that there were two "Cox's armies". 
• Ethelene Dyer Jones gave a wonderful explanation for the old saying-its raining cats and dogs (which happens to be what it's doing right now in Brasstown): "How about this one: "It's raining cats and dogs!" By researching this old saying, I found that it dates back to thatched-roofed houses, when straw was piled high to keep out the elements from the crudely-built dwelling. The cats and dogs (and other creatures) would sometimes crawl upon the thatch and sleep. When a heavy rainstorm came, the weight of the rain on the straw, plus the added weight of the poor animals (that were surely getting wet!) made the animals fall through the roof and land inside the hut. Therefore, "It's raining cats and dogs!" We still say it. But who has ever lived in a thatched-roof house?"
• Ed Ammons chimed in with several sayings. But the list from the gentleman he works with-made me wish I worked there too-or at least that I could meet the man and hang out with him for a while!
• Bill Burnett shared a saying he had just heard and his thoughts on it:  "I heard one yesterday that was new to me "I'll be the son of a Motherless Goat". just what does that mean? A lot of these are used in place of some vulgar swearing but why do they catch on and pass from generation to generation?"
• Rachelle had a cute comment: "We are forever more telling Landon we are gonna jerk a knot in his tail, and he says "Nannie, I not have a tail"."
• PinnacleCreek shared one I've never heard but loved:  "I learned a new one from a lady I once worked with. She used to say to coworkers "Don't sit there like Ned in the Primer!" I sure hope these are forever preserved."
• Ron Banks had one I have heard in the past but had forgotten: "In regard to a good church sermon: Now, if that don't light your fire son, your woods wet!"
• Bradley had this one: "The one that used to make all the young boys mad was when he would act like he was trying to cheer someone up. He would put his hand on their shoulder and say, "Now son don't worry its always darkest right before it turns pitch black, besides it could be worse it could have happened to me."
• Martina had some good ones: "Grandma said of her grandson, an extreme procrastinator: "He doesn't ride the horse the day he puts the saddle on" Mom used to have comments while driving of "great grandmother's corset stays" and "stars and garters". I don't know if they were substitutes for naughty words or were just vintage expressions."

 I shared your comments with The Deer Hunter-who believes strongly in using sayings to spice up his conversations. A few of his favorites:

• deader than 4 o'clock
• happy as a pig in slop
• drunker than a 9 eyed spider

One of my very favorite sayings came from one of you. Back in February Linda left this comment on one of my Appalachian Vocabulary Tests: My mother used to say: "Your milk of human kindness has turned to bonnie clabber."

That saying has stuck with me ever since she left the comment. I'm not sure why-if its because it sounds like its really old or if its the firm sound it has-or because its so descriptive-but I love it.

Thanks again for all the great comments-you guys really do make the Blind Pig a better place to visit!

Tipper

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