I miss a number of things about farm living in the 1950s, but none more so than listening to folks of that era talk. The dialect and dry humor of country folks was music to a country boy’s ears. 

Here in the southeast corner of Virginia, we grew up using a unique blend of dialect and local country sayings, wit and wisdom. It was so much a part of life back then that much of it has lingered in my mind, and a bit of it on my tongue.

Animals were quite naturally the origin of many country sayings. The reason was simple. Farm families relied on their domesticated animals for the family’s welfare, and they had to cope with whatever wild animals inhabited or wandered onto their farms. Thus, animals became a part of everyday speech.

Most of us don’t have chickens these days, yet we are not totally removed from the image of a person strutting like a rooster, and that of a braggart who might even crow. Teens may still “fly the coop” when they go off to college, and some parents certainly hope they will. 

And, I suppose, getting one’s wings clipped is still vaguely understood, though I suspect the phrase’s origin — the practice of actually clipping hens’ wings to prevent them from flying that coop — has pretty much disappeared.

It’s still possible to understand that a person might be stubborn as a mule, but most folks probably wouldn’t understand or appreciate the idea of hitting a mule between the ears with a 2×4 to get his attention. Most farmers back then knew literally what that meant.

Horses or mules were essential to farming as recently as the 1930s, and a few were still in harness as recently as the early 1950s. Every farmer or hired hand was familiar with “the south end of a northbound mule” and all that position denoted. Having one’s “foot in the furrow” was a literal saying for a day spent plowing with a moldboard plow pulled by a mule or horse.

A horse or mule with an ornery streak might “step out of the traces,” the chains that were attached to the plow or cultivator. Likewise, a person, especially a wayward teen, might “step out of the traces” rather than follow the rules laid down.

Another favorite expression related, in our instance, to a cow that had a nasty habit of kicking whenever she was milked.

My father would say she could “kick the soda out of a biscuit without cracking the crust.”

In Southeast Virginia, much depended on the small herds of hogs that farmers raised and slaughtered for their own use or hauled to a slaughterhouse for much-needed cash. Those animals became an important source of country sayings. 

A relatively small number of people in recent times have made pets of hogs, but for the most part these animals, like Rodney Dangerfield, “don’t get no respect.” Hence the quotes that make them images of lowliness.

You still can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear, for example, and most of us understand that to “pig out” or “make a pig of oneself” is not a socially elevated trait. 

Hogs being the generally docile animals that they are, and having no clue as to their future, we often refer to oblivious people as “pigs to the slaughter.” That’s now an image of the past, of course, now that neither Smithfield Foods, nor anyone else, still slaughters hogs in our town.

There are many sayings related to hogs that may have originated in the country, but have become a part of our broader culture. Happy as a pig in a wallow comes to mind, as does “going hog wild.” 

We also still believe that putting lipstick on a pig doesn’t make it anything more than a pig, and thus a bad situation often remains bad even when glossed over.

“When pigs fly” is universally understood as denoting the impossible (except on cute pillows, towels and other touristy items.)

My all-time favorite, though, applies to any lucky and unlikely achievement. The saying is, “Even a blind hog can find an acorn occasionally.” 

 

John Edwards is publisher emeritus of The Smithfield Times. His email address is j.branchedwards@gmail.com.