Heritage Notes – Gomin’, Warsh, and Subtitles
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Today I’m proud to bring you Mama’s third installment of Heritage Hints and Notes. I know you’ll enjoy it as much as I did. We’d love to hear from you in the comments below and be sure to check out her other Heritage posts by clicking here. Gratefully, Christy
I come from a long line of proud, hard-working country people, and despite what you might see on television from time to time or hear about ever now and then, we country people are definitely not stupid or ignorant. My ancestors may have talked differently from others but they were soft spoken gentle people.
A while back, I happened upon a documentary on Appalachian people. I try not to call Christy when these are on because more often than not they subtitle folks as they talk and nothing gets her riled faster than seeing Southerners subtitled…
This particular documentary really stood out to me, though, because I recognized a lot of phrases used by my grandparents, phrases that I’m often corrected on nowadays because folks simply don’t understand them. As it turns out, the words make perfect sense (and always have), it’s just that they were somewhat foreig – what things were called in England and Scotland years earlier and passed down generation by generation.
A prime example is a phrase I’ve heard all of my life. My grandmother (Lela) always complained that we kids were “A messin’ and a gomin’ ”. I always wondered what “goming” was. A man on the documentary explained that goming was making a real mess or being messy. Brings to mind how we were always in the kitchen fixing us a snack and leaving a mess behind-“goming”.
My grandmother “toted stuff in a paper poke”. Translated that means carrying things in a paper sack. Times were hard and my grandmother carefully folded her used paper pokes to be reused whenever she got any. They were reused until they were soft and floppy. Unknowingly she was practicing saving the earth. Country folk recycled long before it was popular. Every now and then I toss a plastic throwaway container in the trash and I can’t help but pause to think of how my grandmother would have loved and cherished something as simple as a plastic container.
Country people rose with the dawn, worked the fields all day, raised all their own food, and preserved it to feed their families through the winter. They made every piece of clothing their family had and even recycled outgrown clothing into clothes for younger children or quilts to provide warmth on long winter nights. Nothing was wasted. Every scrap, thread, and piece of string was valued and saved.
I am often corrected for saying “warsh” instead of wash. Christy tells me that her kids have told her she is supposed to pronounce her father’s title “Da-dee” instead of “Deh-dee”. We aren’t supposed to say ain’t, pokes, “coo-pun” instead of q-pon and the likes. Often, I am torn between using what I know as proper grammar and holding on to the speech and values of my beloved ancestors. It feels as if I am turning my back on them if I change my ways. On the other hand, if I don’t I am perceived as backwards or uneducated. Many a Southerner (or folks from any region with a specific dialect for that matter) struggle with these same feelings.
From my ancestors, I have learned values, how to work hard, and integrity that no school could ever teach. Just like Northerners speak differently, so do I and I will continue to do so. I am proud to be from great loving hardworking stock. I can never turn my back on my heritage but I will try to tone down the “ain’t” at school assemblies for my grandkids as long as they’ll sit and listen to my stories of the people they come from – I figure that is a fair trade off. It is my hope to pass on the integrity with which my ancestors lived every day. I may sound more like them than future generations will, but I only hope I can be half the person that they were.
When asking my Mother what should I do in a sticky situation, she would answer…
“In your heart of hearts you already know the answer. You just have to listen to your heart.”
~Advice from Dawn Tierney’s mother that Dawn submitted on our Give a Penny Page.
Every soft drink was called a Coke whether it was a coke or not….hehehehehhe
Amen, Mama! Well said. If folks would understand the ancestry of Southerners, they’d appreciate the dialect and other traditions. Nothing wrong with them and nothing to be ashamed of. Much the opposite.
And I’m with Christy, don’t put subtitles up for Southerners! lol
I miss my grandma very much…When she made hushpuppies, she always called the hippocrites…has anyone ever heard such a thing…no one that I know of has ever done that…wonder where she got that from…We were raised in Savannah Georgia…her and Grandaddy would sip coffee out of their saucer when it cooled…they never had their cup without their saucer. I use to watch her make butter and ring chickens necks to cook. so many good memories I could go on and on…She would even hide Easter eggs in the underwear on the clothes line…how about that….gotta love em…thank you for all you do…
” ITS NOT HARD TO MEET EXPENCES,
THEY’RE EVERYWHERE”.
Found this in a burger shop lately, and bought it for my office.
Your grandmother Lela reminds me of my Nani…..she too was always saving everything from bread bags to leftover bits of bread or biscuit that she would give to the birds that gathered every morning in her backyard. You are right on our ancestors were “green'” before it was cool.
I too grew up with the terms “messing and goming” although until I read this post had not idea how to spell “goming”. My Nani had so many sayings that she used and my mother and I still use today…I think she lives on in that way.
Just yesterday I scolded my husband and daughter for “cuttin the fool” during church. I wonder if anyone else reading this has ever heard that one??
My parents used that phrase “cuttin the fool” a lot toooooo…I had forgotten about that…Thanks…
What I would give to hear my Gran say one more time that she had been messin and gomin all day. The real truth might include that she had cooked 3 square meals and done untold loads of laundry, but that was just messin and gomin to her.
I have lived in Tennessee all of my long life. Most of the phrases are familiar to me, but never heard the word ‘goming.’ Course I’ve messed around quite a lot. Also the word ‘poke’ was unknown until sometime ago when a little neighbor boy from East Tn. ran out (as I was coming in from shopping) and asked me, “what do you have in your poke?” Love it, but guess that’s the difference between West and East Tn. However, I’m proud to be a southerner!!!
TRUE — there really is a DISTINCT difference in the dialects of East, Middle , West Tn . In Middle Tn , for example, they will say, “I carried Mother to her dr’s appt. ” vs. East Tn – “I took Mother to her dr’s appt.” Middle Tn– it’s “dressed eggs” / East Tn – “deviled eggs.” Fun to learn the difference. I seriously doubt that if 1 out of 1000 East Tn children would know what a “poke” is as in a bag – our dialect is rapidly disappearing and I wish it weren’t but I do know that we are “looked down upon” because of our dialect and accents. Their problem, not mine….lol
I love your articles! I was born on my grandparents farm, delivered by my grandmother, and my brother was her 500th baby to deliver and her last.
When I was in 6th grade, there was my parents and 4 kids living in a 3 room house way back in the sticks of Tennessee. No inside water, we carried it from a spring, no bathroom, not even an outside toilet, we really went out behind the barn. School was a small building, with 3 teachers total. My room had 4th, 5th and 6th grades combined. My teacher took turns teaching each one while the others would do lessons on paper. I was a happy child, although a little hungry sometimes. I wish the children of today could have memories to remember of how families stuck together and helped each other through hard times, and loved their neighbors.
Sorry to get so carried away Christy, your mom brought back so many memories for me. Thank you.