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.
Amen and Amen! Just the way I grew up as well! Wouldn’t trade what I learned “way back then” for anything!
funny story: we grew up that if your kinda hungry you would say “I’m feeling a little peckish” (not sure of the spelling of peckish). I work in a hospital and this pt didn’t have a diet order, I paged the Dr for a diet order, no big emergency and I waited and waited with NO response, pt not happy that he can’t eat. so I put in the pager that pt was feeling a little peckish, I got a reply quick, what is wrong with the pt, I said he is hungry and needs a diet order, the Dr had never heard of Peckish. so, my goal was to ask everyone that I came in contact that day to see if they had heard of it. Only 1 doctor had and he was from Europe….so ha ha, that is where the word came from and he knew what it meant.
I’m 79 and lived almost all my life in Alabama. I never heard “pekish” but my Grandmother always said “I hope someone put up a mess of peas” which means “I helped someone can or freeze a basket of peas.” She also “held something study” instead of steady.
Did your family teach you to know God, love and obey Him, love your neighbor as yourself, work hard and be thankful? There is nothing more important on the face of this earth than that, no matter what language you speak or where you come from!
Amen Denise Rogers – that is so true – Us Seven Children- Were very Blessed to be born to Christian Parents – Our Preacher was our Daddy – I have a little story – I want to share – Our Daddy Pastored a Church In Atlanta Ga -At this time Mama only had five kids – Two came later – And one night in the 60,s – we went to bed and that night – we got 11 inches of snow – and us kids – thought ” Oh boy we wamt have to go to church – we will get ot play in the snow – but Daddy and Mama – made us go – and we were the only ones that showed up – Lol – Our Daddy Preach – Like the building was full of people – But Daddy said we needed it just as much as the other Church Members. And he was right. Mama and Daddy both are gone on to Heaven – and we have also lost 3 of our Brothers and our Sister – Cant wait to see them again.
Just be yourself! You sound pretty good to me!!
You have a Beautiful Mother – and you look just Like her ~ I enjoy your recipes ! Im so very Proud to Be Southern. I fix Pone,s of Cornbread instead a Pan of Cornbread. And Mama always said – we got to Fix Supper – instead of – We got to make supper.
When I was growing up we didn’t have a fit or throw a fit, we “pitched” a fit. Even now when camping with my “aints” & uncles, we sit around the “far” & melt logs. I am from a southern family but don’t have the accent. I was raised on a citified area of Florida. Now I live in a rural area and hear the accent every day. I can lay it on when necessary, though.
I love the article and all the comments! I was born and raised in middle Tennessee and am 64. I hadn’t thought of “messin and a gomin” in years but it took me right back to my mother and grandmother. I love all the old ways of talking. I enjoyed the definition of “kyarn.” Something had to smell really bad to smell like “kyarn.” My grandmother would refer to a bedspread as a “county pen.” I always wondered about it until I saw it referred to (in English literature ) as “counter pane.” My grandparents would always say they were going to do something “dracley.” I finally figured out it must be ‘directly.” My ancestors were from England, Ireland, Scotland.
Christy, thank you so much for sharing your Mother’s recollections. I, along with my three sisters and one brother were born and raised in Southern Califrornia. However, our parents were raised in Georgia and Southern Illinois. To this day all of us pronounce drawer as “dwarer” and washer as”‘warsher”. Throughout the years we have all been asked if we were raised in the “South”. To all of us this has been a compliment!