A Collage of Memories -- My Life and What's It To You!

To my children, my children's children, my children's children's children, etc., friends and  relatives, sharing a collection of my memories may help explain your world in some way. Writing it down helps me to get beyond it.  It is my responsibility to change the aspects presented to me if I don't like the outcome.

It was not until later in life that I realized I came from one of the poorest factions of society.  To others in the world's society, we would have been considered "dirt poor".  At the time compared to others in southern Ohio, we were pretty lucky. In fact, I came from generations of dirt farmers. Throughout these generations, a lot of their familial history and culture has been handed down and preserved; most has been lost.

Ancestors of folks in southern Ohio came from Virginia. My ancestor Henry Countryman for example was my great, great, great grandfather on my Dad's side. Henry migrated from Virginia to southern Ohio in 1802. His daughter, Elizabeth married James Washburn in 1803, the year Ohio became a state. Their daughter Susannah Washburn married Charles C. Cluff in 1838, in Highland County. They were my great grandparents. These early settlers influenced my world. They influenced my language and dialect. For example, the trunk of an automobile was called a "boot" in my family. An extra leather gear bag on an English saddle was referred to as a "boot". It was then natural to automatically call the trunk of an automobile, a "boot". Old English words were frequently used by my family. Look up the word "juberous" in today's dictionary. I'd be surprised if you found it. Access it in an Old English Dictionary and it will be defined something like "cautious" or "uncertain". I still use the word in my everyday conversations. It fits so many situations perfectly. I doubt that any of my children use the word "juberous" in their conversations. I have only met one person as an adult and he was from West Texas who had ever heard of the word. His family had migrated from Virginia. Will "juberous" be lost forever? Not if you read about it here in my recollections!

A set of books you might like to read to get a better understanding of the culture which was still a part of my childhood in the 1940's and 1950's is a trilogy by Conrad Richter. The first volume's title is simply "The Trees" which describes what southern Ohio was like before the settlers arrived within a fictional story. The second volume's title is "The Fields" covering the time period of the actual settling of the area. The last volume's title is again simply, "The Town" which describes the creation of a town in the same area. As I read these books for the first time, I wrote down words that I had heard throughout my childhood but had never seen the actual spelling. The words were never in my spelling book but I recognized them immediately when I saw them in Richter's books. My listing these words here in this blog may be thought of as the research similar to writing down native American words for preservation. I include words as well as phrases other than boot (trunk of an automobile) and juberous (cautious or uncertain) here for you to preserve:


a corker (an amazing, remarkable (ornery) child)
alrighty (YES!)
bass ackwards (alternative form of ass-backwards)
bedfast or bedridden (confined to bed by sickness or old age)
bedraggled - messed up
By hokey! (YES!)
clothes press closet
corduroy road (so called from its rough or ribbed surface, resembling corduroy)
criminy or criminently ( expression of annoyance or surprise)
curlicues (fancy twist or curl, such as a flourish made with a pen.)
dadgummit (sorrowful expression)
dido (cut a hole out of something)
doggoneit (used to express anger, irritation, surprise, pleasure)
fidget (can't sit still)
finagled (obtain (something) by devious or dishonest means)
iota (a very small amount; a bit)
hankering (a yearning for something or to do something
lackadaisical (lacking enthusiasm and determination; carelessly lazy)
laid up (suffering from or affected with an illness: down , ill , sick , unwell)
Land O'Goshen (Southern expression of amazement or frustration)
ooze (slowly trickle or seep out of something; flow in a very gradual way)
out of kilter (disturbed; out of order; not working or adjusted properly)
passel (a package)
persnickety (requiring strict attention to detail; demanding)
piddle (rained very little; trace)
poke (bag)
poultice (substance heated and spread on a cloth applied to a sore)
rack and ruin (disrepair; very neglected condition)
rant and rave (to speak or write in an angry or violent manner)
rankled (aggravated; festering sore)
redd up or redd out (clean up the room)
rut (A long deep track made by the repeated passage of the wheels of vehicles.)
shikepoke ( another name for a green heron)
slew (large number)
smithereens (small pieces, example: blow them to smithereens)
spruce up (dress up; make neat, smart, or trim; "Spruce up your house for Spring")
tamp (pound with an object)
varmint or vermin (troublesome wild animal; troublesome and mischievous person)
wallow (roll about in mud or water)
whistle-pig (ground hog, when alarmed, they use a high-pitched whistle, hence the name)
whole kit and caboodle (everything)
whole shebang (everything)
young whippersnapper (youngster making an exaggerated outward show; ostentatious)


Two expressions of my Mother's I never heard any other member of the family used was "Put your shoes on Lucy" (if you didn't have any shoes on). Her mother was Lucy Rose (Olden) McKay. I always wonder if Lucy's mother began this tradition but after the Internet, I discovered that was a song early on. The lyrics of the chorus goes like this:

Put your shoes on, Lucy, don't you know you're in the city Put your shoes on, Lucy, it's really such a pity That Lucy can't go barefoot wherever she goes 'Cause she loves to feel the wiggle of her toes. 

My dear Colleen had a hard time with her shoes as a child and she probably remembers the phrase to this day but I wish I had known the song! You can hear the tune at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3VKmY5HHNA&feature=related

The other favorite expression of Mother's was "Who's the Laddy Buck that did this?" Of course I was probably the one in trouble when she said it! As an adult I can't help but wonder if it was handed down from her Scottish ancestors? I'll always assume that it was. She didn't get it from TV. She was saying it before TV was invented. Radio perhaps but I still prefer to think it came from Elkenny McKay, the earliest immigrant and beyond.

Hopefully, "juberous", "dido", "tamp" and some of these other words, phrases and recollections will be saved for future generations. It's actually preserving a unique culture, what little there is left.

Mispronunciation of words -- now you can forget these but there's some funny stories behind them! Again it probably was the influence of the Old English background and mix of cultures. Ohio was not pronounced O-hi-O in southern part of the state. Ohio was pronounced Ah-hi-ah. In southern Ohio, you didn't wash your clothes, you "warshed" your clothes on Monday and "arned" them on Tuesday. You "feshed" in "crekes", not fished in creeks. Would you jump off a "clift" or a "cliff"? My daughter Melissa made me aware of that mispronunciation when she was in elementary school. However... I have since discovered on the Internet that "clift" is an alternative spelling. Another great story is when I realized that a favorite picturesque spot with cliffs and lots of cedar trees on a small stream between the Garen home and the other farm (Johnson Place) was not "Ceden Nars" but in actuality it was "Cedar Narrows"!

Even though the city of Columbus, Ohio where Bill and I first moved away from the farms was only 70 miles north of Highland County, our dialect was quite noticeable there. It was learned fast to lose our "uniqueness" if we wanted to succeed.

My family was not the normal kind of family you would think of today. I had five adults to "direct" me in the appropriate direction. Our family was similar to what they refer to today as an extended family but few of us in this extended family were related. There was my Mother, Father and their three living children, Etta (pronounced Eddy), Sam and Doc. In the following posts, I will share stories about each one of them and more.