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.
My daddy always said a-messin’ and a-gomin’!
So eloquently put…and true.
It’s obvious where you get your writing talent from, Christy.
Seriously, one of you needs to write a novel. I mean, keep the cookbooks coming, but you have more than one talent! It “ain’t” just cooking!
After my in-laws passed away our family often got a chuckle from some of the things that were as much a part of their conversation as saying ‘Hello’ or ‘Goodbye’. Knowing it was quickly becoming a lost language, I made a book of their ‘sayings’ to pass down to the younger generations, along with the actual meanings of as many of them as I could figure out. “I’ll be swanee” and “I’ll swan!” were two that have me stumped! Any ideas?
When I was a child, you could get your mouth washed out for saying “i swear”. Swearing was not allowed. You could get away with “I’ll swan” it meant the same thing but wouldn’t get you in trouble
Hi, Jerianne, I always thought that “I swan!” was a substitute for “I swear”, but I’ve no idea where this came from. I have lived in the south all of my 54 years. Maybe Christy’s Mom will know.
I’ll swan is used for I swear. My grandmother and her sisters from WV used this word frequently. Sweet milk was milk other than buttermilk, light bread was store bought white bread, not biscuits or cornbread. Warsh rag, for wash cloth, cheer for chair, as in pull up a cheer. Window lights were windows.
Used instead of saying “I swear”… which just was never done by religious Bible Belt folks.
A million yrs ago in school, “the best I can remember”…lol,
“I swan” was a sub for the “inappropriate– “I swear.”
Great article! Dallas Morn News said this weekend that the Texas accent is being fazed out by the huge influx of Yanks and Hispanics—but I ain’t changin!
Christy, Your sweet Mama is a very wise woman! Reading this post reminded me of the hardest working,best women I ever had the pleasure of knowing. My Grandma & two of my aunts. I wonder if any of you ever heard or used the word “kyarn”? My Grandma used the word like this”that dog smells like it’s been in the pasture rolling around in kyarn”. Now, I always knew that meant something that really stinks& was most likely dead. Grandma said that as long as I can remember. I just found out in the past year that it actually comes from the word carion, which is indeed, ” something dead”. Like so many of ya’ll said, these were smart, hard working, good folks& I am very thankful for my southern heritage. I have a young friend who lives in Texas, but is oricginally from Michigan. She says it’s much easier to understand me in person than over the phone. What in the world do ya’ll think she’s talking about?LOL She probably doesn’t know about messin&gomin’ or caryying something in a poke either.Bless her heart! I have lived in Alabama all my life, how could you not understand me? 🙂
Your article was very interesting. My mother would gather eggs or veggies from the garden by folding her apron in front of her and placing them in the fold. She usually would not have container with her but usually (always) had an apron on.
My Grandma used this word, too! Thanks for the etymology (history)! I want to go home, back to my roots–I’m in CA and y’all are right, the people out here need some serious praying for!
California born and bred a long, long time ago and couldn’t agree more. Other than the exhaustive car rides in a vehicle w/o air conditioning, I loved our visits back to visit those down-to-earth, wise relatives. Keep praying, I know I will!
Love this! My mom is from Kentucky and I always felt like the south was home. We still use all of the old sayings so much that all my friends and the granchildrens friends say we are speaking a foreign language. They call our speech granny-isms in honor of my mom! The North is where I have grown up but those summers spent eating the best food on earth and in the evenings. Chasing lighting bugs was the best!!! I so miss my grandparents, my dear uncle and so many of the sweet folks there who have passed on. Tell your mama thank you for staying true to her roots! God bless her!
I really loved this article today. It is just what I needed to hear. I am a country girl and have always tried to do what is right and good. These were handed down from my parents and my grandparents. I so miss the “good ole days” and wish my son and daughter could learn from what I teach them. Hopefully the world has not spoiled them too much and will retain what was shown them from an early age. I love being a southerner and absolutely hate it when we are thought of as dumb or stupid just cuz we talk funny to them. I may not have the book smarts that some of them have, but I sure have some common sense and country charm.!!!!!