Things our parents used to say

[piggy and babs 544]

of course as a child i did not really understand what it ment.

[Merthyr Imp 729]

Dad used to say I'd make a Saint swear

A variation on that was what my mother used to say: 'You're enough to make a parson swear!'

[Beduth 202]

If my Dad was busy but I wanted his attention he would say "I'm too occu bloody pied"

[StephenFord 866]

One of my dad's when astonished, or sometimes an expression of exasperation (sort of equivalent to Good grief) was "Great Scotland Yard !"

[benjamin1945 16,154]

by giney yol coppit

[benjamin1945 16,154]

one of me mams favourites, yo a bigger liar than DICK HART,,, can anybody tell me who Dick Hart was? mam was from Bulwell

[Bubblewrap 3,815]

I once broke wind(LOUDLY)

Father said "you can stop that"

I replied " sure which way did it go"

[... 1,411]

yoll get a tab holing

[TGC 216]

Gone for a Burton, was the reply when asking where someone had gone. I wonder where that came from?

In informal British English, something or someone who has gone for a Burton is missing; a thing so described might be permanently broken, missing, ruined or destroyed. The original sense was to meet one’s death, a slang term in the RAF in World War Two for pilots who were killed in action (its first recorded appearance in print was in the New Statesman on 30 August 1941).

The list of supposed origins is extremely long, but the stories are so inventive and wide-ranging that you may find them intriguing:

Spanish Burton was the Royal Navy name for a pulley arrangement that was so complex and rarely used that hardly anyone could remember what it was or what to do with it. Someone in authority who asked about a member of a working party might be told that he’d gone for a burton.

The name of burton was given to a method of stowing wooden barrels across the ship’s hold rather than fore and aft. Though they took up less space this way, it was dangerous because the entire stowage might collapse and kill somebody.

The term burnt ’un referred to an aircraft going down in flames.

It refers to the inflatable Brethon life jacket at one time issued by the RAF.

It was a figurative reference to getting a suit made at the tailors Montague Burton, as one might say a person who had died had been fitted for a wooden overcoat, a coffin (compare the full Monty).

The RAF was said to have used a number of billiard halls, always over Burton shops, for various purposes, such as medical centres or Morse aptitude tests (one in Blackpool is especially mentioned in the latter context). To go for a Burton was then to have gone for a test of some sort, but to have failed.

It was rhyming slang: Burton-on-Trent (a famous British brewing town in the Midlands), meaning “went”, as in went West.

A pilot who crashed in the sea was said to have ended up in the drink; to go for a Burton was to get a drink of beer, in reference to Burton-on-Trent. So the phrase was an allusive reference to crashing in the sea, later extended to all crashes.

It is said that there was a series of advertisements for beer in the inter-war years, each of which featured a group of people with one obviously missing (a football team with a gap in the line-up, a dinner party with one chair empty). The tagline suggested the missing person had just popped out for a beer — had gone for a Burton. The slogan was then taken up by RAF pilots for one of their number missing in action as a typical example of wartime sick humour.

There’s little we can do to choose one of these over the others. If the advertisements really did run before the War they would be the obvious source, though none have been traced and the most probable candidate, the Burton Brewery Co Ltd, closed in 1935 and was hardly well-known even before then. Whatever the truth, knowing a little about wartime pilots, my bet would be on some association with beer.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-gon1.htm

[katyjay 5,091]

Well, I did ask! LOL.

[Ashley 288]

My late uncle Dennis Hugh McCracken born 1922 Old Basford, called up and served on bomb disposal throughout the london blitz (inc being blown unconscious by a bomb) had that sort of humour referred to in TGC's post,

Not sure whether the following is actually true but when my mum was relating to me the bombing of The Old Moot Hall (Market Square/Friar Lane corner) she said the landlord of such was missing, and his body was found later inside blown out windows of shop on the opposite corner after at first being thought a blast damaged tailors dummy, quick as a flash my uncle chipped in "He'd gone for a Burtons"

http://www.picturethepast.org.uk/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;DCHQ504922&pos=9&action=zoom&id=78526

[katyjay 5,091]

'Where's that cup of tea you were making?'

Me shouting from the kitchen 'It's coming'

Answer from mam 'yes, and so is bleddy Christmas'

[benjamin1945 16,154]

AS YEE SOW SO SHALL YE REAP, this was my mothers favourite,and i believe its very true.

[plantfit 7,592]

I hear on GEM radio this morning they are asking for old sayings to be text to them or even phoned in, have any of you done that yet? it seems a lot of the replies they have been getting could have been lifted from these very pages,(you should copywrite them Mick)

Rog

[Bubblewrap 3,815]

My late uncle Dennis Hugh McCracken born 1922 Old Basford, called up and served on bomb disposal throughout the london blitz (inc being blown unconscious by a bomb) had that sort of humour referred to in TGC's post,

Not sure whether the following is actually true but when my mum was relating to me the bombing of The Old Moot Hall (Market Square/Friar Lane corner) she said the landlord of such was missing, and his body was found later inside blown out windows of shop on the opposite corner after at first being thought a blast damaged tailors dummy, quick as a flash my uncle chipped in "He'd gone for a Burtons"

http://www.picturethepast.org.uk/frontend.php?keywords=Ref_No_increment;EQUALS;DCHQ504922&pos=9&action=zoom&id=78526

Could have been done for "breaking & entering"

[benjamin1945 16,154]

TEN OCLOCK OSSES ARE COMING,! Something my mother shouted to get us to come in at night,

[Smiffy49 590]

I can vividly remember my Mother saying to a family visitor that "Christmas was just around the corner"

We jumped on our bikes and pedalled as fast as we could go to the bottom of the road and looked around the corner.

It was a disappointing walk back home......

[katyjay 5,091]

Kids do take what you say, literally. I told my daughter when she was being naughty, she had got to pull her socks up, and she did just that!

[TGC 216]

Benjamin 1945 reminded me in his latest post about left-handed folk.

Dad used to call me 'Cacky-handed'.

Amongst other things...

[katyjay 5,091]

If someone's clothing was really loose and baggy, mam would say, it fit him like a stocking on a chicken's lip.

[benjamin1945 16,154]

I Love the American saying,"have a nice day" its a lovely way to cheer someone up,and in situations like "road rage" it can difuse a confrontational situation,well mostly,lol

[benjamin1945 16,154]

Its always darkest just before the dawn" one of my Dads favourites,he was a railway man and mostly worked nights.

Another he always said was,"things will be worse afore they get better"

[katyjay 5,091]

If you told mam something you thought she didn't already know, but it was actually common knowledge, she'd say 'Nelson's dead', meaning it's old news.

[Barnze 27]

Me Mam allus said "Don't touch the dogs tabs cuz you'll get Canker"

Me Dad allussaid " Dunna put penneys in ya marf yul get Canker"

I did both things--- Never got Canker.

[Bubblewrap 3,815]

I Love the American saying,"have a nice day" its a lovely way to cheer someone up,and in situations like "road rage" it can difuse a confrontational situation,well mostly,lol

If someone says that to me I usually say is it compulsary ?