Shut the Front Door!

Slap Your Mama  ....What does that mean anyway?  I gather it means "Good job!", "awesome", etc, all out great.  Better than great even.

There have been all kinds of slang and catch phrases through the years.  We Boomers have gone through decades of our own.  :There are generational phrases and words and there are regional ones.

There are ones that we hold onto and others that are no longer pertinent in our lives.  Mostly we don't want to appear dated or more likely, ridiculous.  "far out, groovy and right on" come to mind.

My husband grew up in northern Michigan just south of the Mackinac Bridge that connects the lower and upper peninsulas of Michigan.  He went to college in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan which also has a bridge that connects it to Sault Ste. Marie, Canada.   Living that close to Canada, as long as I've known him he has used Canada's # 1 slang export. "Ay?"  pronouced "A".  Down here, at the Marine base, the guys kid him about it.  It's regional, ay?

The words and phrases that amuse me most are the ones that I say still, that came from my Mother.  Just last night Terry and I were changing our sheets on the bed.  They are t-shirt sheets that have stretched out and are no longer square , so I told him they were "Whoppiejawed".  He calmly said, "That's your mother ."  Of course it is.  So is Cattywampus.. What the heck?  Also "Stoop".  If your porch is not big enough to qualify as a porch, it is a stoop. Right?  Terry had never heard that before he met my mother ( and me apparently). The one that drives him nuts is "stuffy".  I cannot breathe  if the room or car is stuffy.  I think he's heard that a few times over the last 30 years.  How do northerners communicate without these colorful terms? 

Mom with my younger daughters when they were little, about 20 years ago.  They are 26 and 28 now.  They had many saturday night sleepovers in Grammy's big bed. 

I know, when we were children, my mother would say "See ya later alligator" to us and wait for the "after while crocodile."  She had my daughters saying it when they were little too.  So, forget the whole "Kibash".  No way.  I say "Heebie Jeebies" but I'm not sure if I got that from my mother.
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I've also said " Run around like a chicken with its head cut off",     Unfortunately, I saw that at about 5 years old, at one of my grandmother's and that's a sight that sticks with you. Lordy......

 My father may have his favorites too, but because he worked nights and I was in school or working during the day, I rarely spent any time with him.  In later years, after he retired, he was and is pretty much a loner so I didn't have the hours and hours of time with him like I did my mother.  Her slang greatly influenced mine.  

She had others that I didn't adopt.  For instance: " Piddlin, Fit to be Tied, and Walking in Tall Cotton." 

 I'm sure my daughters could have their own list.  Some of these have to stuck with them too.

Do you hear your parents slang or phrases coming out of your own mouth too?  I'd love to hear what they are.   I can't be the only one brainwashed out here.