Heritage Notes – Gomin’, Warsh, and Subtitles
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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.
I guess you can say I am a northern or Yankee. Born and breed but my heritege started in the south. I had read all 3 of Mama’s writings and loved them all. They brought many memories back of my childhood. As for me I love to hear the stories of the south. When I hear someone speak with a southern accent it makes me smile. I have been in the south for vacations and I couldn’t not speak more highly of people there. We may talked different but we have many things in common. We love God, love our neighbors, work hard to put food on the table, cheerish our kids and raising them right. Love good food and love our country. I guess it really depends on how you are raised more than anything. So from someone that lives in the North don’t change your accent for any one. I cheerish you and if some one wants to know you they will love for who you are. You have to love a country where its good to be different and still be respected. You are far from ignorant. I loved reading all the comments. You are all good people with many great stories. Thanks for sharing. It makes me miss my grandparents. Aren’t grandparents the best thing since slice bread. I know you all have heard that one. Even us Northerns use some good sayings. Have a great day everyone.
What a wonderful post. Your mom certainly has a way with words as you do. And to the folks who feel the need to correct and criticize, here’s another saying I grew up with: If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all!
God Bless!
Hi Christy, I reallyt enjoyed this post. So many old expressions have just about died out. I am from the hills of North Ga., but I live in Huntsville, Alabama now.
My husband was career army. He is from Charleston, S.C., but that is another whole story. Their accent is a language all it’s own. My family came from that Scotch/Irish background and I recognize a lot of those words. How about, “she is as mad as an old wet hen.” Or “right smart” as in “that’s a right smart piece down the road”. I will be 79 this year and so many of these expressions are fading. So thanks for reminding me.
Now that i am a grandmother, I often find myself quoting my grandmothers and their sayings come flying right out of my mouth. They were wonderful, hard working people who loved their families fiercely. One grandmother raised nine children (she used to brag that they all lived~rare back then) and always had a pot of something on the stove cooking. There was always room at the table for one or more. I often think I should try to be more like them.
Thank you for such a great post!
The apple don’t fall far from the tree! 😉 I love this, because of how y’all feel about everyone trying to correct you. My mama says “warsh,” too! She’s a Florida girl who got it from her mama who is from Georgia. (My granddaddy is from Alabama.)
As I learned in my Linguistics class in University, there is no “right” way to say something because everyone speaks so differently. There is a more Standard English way of saying something, but it lacks the richness of your own regional dialect. So, don’t ditch your heritage just because someone corrects you! 🙂
Your speech is a part of who you are.
Someone special!
Thanks for the wonderful article…I too am from a long line of hardworking “country folks” who I dearly loved and wish I could hear them setting on the porch on summer nights and telling family history…I did not know that would mean so much to me some day…Keep up the good stories….