Family sayings (and the trouble you can get into)

We used to say 'slow down George' from an old advert for the Radio or TV Times. The wife said this to her husband followed by 'it doesn't start till 7.20' then the kids chimed in with 'but Dad it's on now!'

We have a habit of saying "Well it's as good as" from a much loved Victoria Wood sketch about a shoe shop. Come to think of it most of our 'borrowed' sayings are from Victoria Wood. What a tragedy that she is no longer with us.

"Well that's life Jim, but not as we know it".

"Just the one Mrs. Webbly"

Mille fueille - those flakey pastry cakes which are very difficult to eat - my cousin and I have called them ' milly filly' for years - one of her children when they were little used to use that name.
We were at a meal the other evening with a number of French people and this was one of the dessert choices - I chose it and when my friend asked what I had ordered I said to her ' milly filly'- she knew what I meant - the French queried it and thought it very funny when I told them the story of why and kept repeating it during the meal!

I use the line from Burglar Bill too Kitty! We

We loved Burglar Bill in our house too (That's a nice coffee and walnut cake with butter icing on the top ...) and we play the 'glad game'(Pollyanna), though very tongue in cheek.

We also talk about 'dippy eggs' (soft yolk when fried) - sometimes confusing if we are ordering breakfast out.

Not that the subject came up very often, but my family always referred to the medical instrument as a "hyperdeemic nurdle". We also said, philosophically, "When one door closes another one shuts". One of my aunts was famous for her malapropisms which we all gleefully adopted: palmistry for pharmacy and pelmet for pelvis, to name but two.

It's beef! from a gravy advert.Used for anything good.

The problem with these sayings is that we, at least, forget they aren't common to everyone.

My son who was a slightly fussy eater when he was little, wouldn't eat eggy bread. DH called it Batman Toast and DS ate it. From then on that was what all the family called it. A few years ago my DD , now 50, was having breakfast in a 'posh' hotel. After reading the menu she asked for said Batman Toast. Both the waiter and her DH were struck dumb for a few moments. She rang me later . "I thought everyone called it that" she wailed ????

I remember seeing a childrens concert when I was about 10. This girl was reciting a poem and each verse ended ' and the smoke went up the chimney just the same' My mum and I regularly said it after that meaning life goes on.

I wonder if that is the song that goes you push the damper in and you pull the damper out and the smoke goes up the chimney just the same. The end bit accompanied by a twisting motion of the hand. When my son and his family moved into a house with an open fire, we were discussing the best wY to start it. The older generation all sang this song.

"You don't win friends with salad" is one of my DS's favourites. I believe it is from the Simpsons ?.

Did that song have a chorus,
Glory glory Alleluia....
And the smoke goes up the chimney just the same?
You have taken me back 70 years.

"when one door shuts, another one slams in your face"

My DGC and I have a silly saying that we use . It started when DGD couldn't find the final word for describing how she felt. It stuck and now we all say it .
"I'm as tired as .... a frog"
" I'm as hungry as a frog"
" I'm happy as a frog"
Etc.

From the pizza advert of a while back thats 'andy 'arry ( stick it in the oven)

We used lots of daft sayings. We use the 'slow down George' one too shysal 'Slow down George it doesn't start til 7.20' 'Quick dad it's on now' as I recall it. My DGD used to be much amused when I said 'well I'll go to the foot of our stairs'. We were watching Nigel Slater cooking lamb burgers this morning and DH said (as I knew he would) 'Lamburger Gessler'. Remember him from William Tell? Although I realise that it wasn' Lambuger but Landburgher or something, we always called him Lamburger.

'And the smoke goes up the chimney just the same' is from the Cornish song 'Camborne Hill'. We sing it a lot in local pubs. It has lots of verses, one of them a bit saucy.

A friend once told us that she had two little girls selling raffle tickets for the Brownies, she bought some from them, and asked what the main prize was.The girls were both chewing on something and chorused 'a flue damper! '
Needless to say, when she got her glasses on and looked at the raffle tickets it was a food hamper.

My father used to make up our bedtime stories and a regular favourite had the line
'Tell all the boys and girls
to get their buckets and spades,
We're going to the seaside at 10 past 10'
Whenever someone asked what time it was and the answer was 10 past 10 we would all chorus 'tell all the boys and girls.......etc'
I did it once in a business meeting because, even into my early 20s, I thought this was a well known bedtime story

wind scriper wemers - windscreen wipers

DGS calls me DooDoon, not Gran or Grandma
As I live downstairs in the Granny flat when he was very small he could not say go down, when he wanted to come down.
It morphed into DooDoon and has stuck he is now 5 and does not seem to intend to change.
It can be quite embarrassing at times when we are out and some of his little friends at Sunday SChool also call me it.

It's not just saying, it's words too! We used to jokingly refer to Amontillado sherry as "Armadillo". My mother was in the local supermarket in the days before the wine was on the shelf and she was about to ask the assistant behind the counter for a bottle of her favourite tipple, but for some reason the proper name for it escaped her. After struggling for a moment, she decided to just point at it!

I think the assistant must have thought she was a bit doo lally.