Old Fashioned Sayings

Mike, my son David's college roommate, was in the hospital for a week with an unusual and serious illness. Mike's parents live 7-8 hours away and came to be with him, but after several days needed to return home to work. Since we live less than 1 hour away from the college, I promised his mother that we would check on him.

On one visit to the hospital, I wanted to talk with Mike about adjusting to his new health needs - getting plenty of rest, eating right, finding the right medication and generally focusing on his long term health. He wanted to talk with me about his worry about the cost of his hospital stay.

My initial reaction was sadness that a 20 year old college student was in a hospital bed worrying about the cost of getting well. In an attempt to get him to focus on the most pressing problem - his health and not the cost - I said "Mike, don't worry about the mule going blind." His face broke into the widest grin and he said, "That sounds just like the things David says! Oh, I have gotta write that one down with the other ones!" He went on to say that living with David, he had heard all kinds of sayings that were unfamiliar to him.

I guess I had never realized how many old fashioned sayings are used by our families. Or maybe the expressions are just forgotten from generation to generation. How many people today know WHY somebody might worry about the mule going blind?

"Worrying about the mule going blind" is actually something that my husband used to hear from his father who likely heard it from his father. Mr. D. W. Royster was sometimes called Mr. Ich. I have heard that his nickname originated because his tall, lanky frame resembled Washington Irving's character, Ichabod Crane. The grandchildren called him Pop Ick. When you were told "don't worry about the mule going blind", it meant don't spend non-productive energy worrying about something that you cannot control.

Several years ago, my Dad stumped me with an old fashioned saying when I was typing a letter for him. It was a recommendation letter and the point he wanted to make was that the applicant was a consistent, dependable person and focused on reaching his goals. Trying to decipher Dad's handwriting, I typed the words "he doesn't fall off the tracks". Dad laughed when he read what I had typed and told me it was supposed to say "he doesn't fall out of the traces". I had no idea what that meant, but he explained that it was a mule driving term. A good mule knew it should stay on a straight path while plowing all the way to the end of a row. If a mule, "fell out of the traces" it meant it wasn't consistent, dependable and focused on its task.

Another favorite saying in our family is one that Mama uses alot. Mama is the queen of diffusing an argument. Growing up, my sisters and I were encouraged to have independent thoughts and express our opinions. Discussion and debate are still normal at the round dinner table and the kitchen chopping block. So when something comes up that Mama sees is NOT going to be agreed upon, she just shrugs her shoulders and says, "That's why they make chocolate and vanilla". Sometimes you just have to agree to disagree. This one has really caught on in my little household. It is not unusual to hear it as often from our boys as from their parents!

Nishie had alot of good sayings, but the one that everyone in the family still uses in many different situations is - "You got to know when to turn it loose!" When Nishie said turn it sounded like tarn. In the original story, Nishie was telling dad, "Jack, you got to know when to tarn it loose!" This can be used for a variety of reasons, but basically means it's important to know when enough is enough.

This year on Mother's Day at the Hunt House in Lattimore, we were sitting on the front steps talking when somebody on a loud motorcycle sped by; the engine popping and the bike swerving and swishing around the corner. Daddy grinned and said that when he was a little boy and somebody came by the house like that in a loud, fast car, the kids would yell from the yard "go ahead on, hell ain't half full yet!"

These old fashioned sayings can really drive home a point.