Beech Tree News Network

At eighty-two I’m a “Pilgrim and a stranger”.  No doubt about it. 
TV movies have whippoorwills hollerin’ in the daytime. 
I saw recently when ten percent of college graduates think Judge Judy on TV is a member of the U.S. Supreme Court.
The younger TV professional say “fur” for the word for.  Growing up we thought anyone who said “fur”, was underrated and from the “sticks”.
However, old-fashioned expressions were not necessarily poor grammar.  My fraternal grandmother would say “I need to draw some molasses.”  This meant she needed to refill the molasses table-pitcher from a gallon jug.
Probably the term “draw” came from when molasses was stored in a wooden barrel and “drawn” out by means of the spigot.  The barrel was stored on a rack, on its side, with the spigot at the bottom of one end.
Some words were “in-between” old fashioned and bad grammar, ie (quiloqual): “Thar”, for instance- for, “there”.  My daddy told an old neighbor who frequently took dinner with my daddy’s family.  “Dinner” back then was the noon meal.
When my grandmother came around for the second or third time to refill hid coffee cup, he would protest, “well maybe, just a little-mite more.”  While the coffee was being poured the old guy would be looking away, talking.  Suddenly when the cup was about to run over again, he would look back and holler, “thar-thar!”  This procedure would be repeated several times.
“Face-fomest” is a good old-timey expression: “On his third helping, he fell face-fomest into his pie.” (What a good way to go.)
Growing up, we didn’t have indoor plumbing until I was about ten or twelve. We took “wash-pan” baths through the creek, until Saturday.  Then it was in a number- there washing-tub, in warm water, in the kitchen, by the kitchen stove.  Entertainer, Dolly Parton, a Tennessee country girl, describes a through-the week-wash pan-bath: “Well, you start at the head and wash down as far as possible.  Then you start at your feet and wash up as for as possible… then you wash POSSIBLE.
                            Kindest regards…..