Things our parents used to say

[alisoncc 379]

As the thread relates to "Things our parents used to say", thought I might add some significant variations. My Dad served with the Ox and Bucks in India before and during the first part of WWII, and for some time my Mum was out there with him. So you can guess our household was a hotbed of British army slang derived from warmer climes.

We never had a tummy-ache, we had a gyppie tum - from Egyptian food poisoning. If we were acting silly, then we were a bit doollalie - from an asylum operated by the Brits in India at "Doollalie". My Mum never made a pot of tea, we had a brew, or a mug of char. If anyone was having a lie down, they were having a kip. If my parents wanted to see something we had, they would request a shufty. Could go on for hours, and still use most ot the phrases to the consternation of Ozzie friends.

[katyjay 5,090]

My dad used words he picked up in India and Burma also, like let's take a dekko, for a look. In fact his Burma Star magazine, now I come to think of it, was called Dekko.

[DAVIDW 1,681]

Thats three of us then . My dad was in India too with the Royal Engineers throughout WW11 , building docks mainly .

One of the words he sometimes used was punkawalla for someone doing a menial task . I think a punkawalla was actually the guy that operated one of those large manual fans . There was also a tea-walla , someone who made the tea .

Getting back to doolally , the full saying was doolally-tap . It was actually from the first world war and came from the place called Deolali that was a staging post where soldiers who had finished their enlistment waited for a ship to take them home . Sometimes they could wait for months for a ship and without the ordered army life that they were used to , some went a bit mental through the heat and boredom . The tap bit was Urdu for fever .

[Ashley 288]

Alot of well known words come from India, including the name for a one story home, this comes from a time when 2 walla's were building a house and ran out of materials, so they decided to bung a low roof on it ,lol

[Beefsteak 305]

Char Wallah made the tea.

Jaldi Jaldi !

I actually use that one to my kids when I want them to get to bed quickly................ "Uppastairs pappa gee , jaldi jaldi"

Mick knows where it comes from !

[carni 10,094]

Quickly Quickly, I won't ask! Lol

[DAVIDW 1,681]

char-walla of course not tea -walla !

char was an asian word for tea . Still sometimes say a "cup of char"

[katyjay 5,090]

My dad used wallah for every job, like, has the paper wallah been yet [delivering the Evening Post]

[DAVIDW 1,681]

Amongst the photos that my dad brought back from India was one of a large outside clothes washing area called a dhobi .

The workers there were called dhobi-wallahs ! This is another photo of a dhobi .

[Ashley 288]

then they moved to Radford

http://lds.localdataimages.com/large/2126/21263153.jpg

[katyjay 5,090]

If we were ready to eat and hadn't got the knives and forks on the table already, mam would say 'go and get the grappling irons'.

[alisoncc 379]

Jaldi Jaldi !

That brought back memories, although I remembered it as Jildi - jildi. Almost always used in the context of "bed" of an evening to us kids. As in "get there - NOW".

[katyjay 5,090]

If I was singing, mam would say, sounds like the tune the cat died on, or alternately, can you sing Over The Hill and Far Away? Preferably, as far away as possible.

If say the tomato sauce bottle was all goopy around the top, she'd say it was 'gobbed' up.

[tomlinson 879]

If there was a row going on, it sounded like, 'Billy Ball's Tap Room', whatever that was.

[DAVIDW 1,681]

From t'internet , though I can't see any evidence to back it up or even of when he was supposed to be landlord :

When things got so noisy that you could not hear your
self think, someone would say -

"Sound like Billy Balls tap room in here"

Billy Ball ran the Black Swan (locally refered to as the
Dirty Duck) public house (pub/bar) in Goosegate, where
the Tap Room at the back was very small and noisy.

[Commo 1,292]

Thanks David, I'd forgotten that, it was one of my Gran's many sayings. Brought back memories of her, although many of her sayings may not be quite the thing to put onto an open Forum ! !

[StephenFord 866]

I don't know whether this was local or nationwide, but it was a phrase that came in, had it's day, and then seemed to quietly die a death : "Belt up!" = be quiet, or stop whatever you are doing.

[tomlinson 879]

#1140 Thanks for taking the trouble I should have taken myself. At the time I heard the expression used I was very small and noisy myself!

[Cliff Ton 10,457]

That's one I haven't heard for years..... my grandparents who lived in Radford always used the "Billy Ball's tap room" phrase for any kind of noise, whether it was from kids or anything else.

[jackson 301]

Remember this one?: 'Your eyes are bigger than your belly!'

[tomlinson 879]

In the early fifties when times were particularly hard, I often heard the phrase, 'We'll all end up in the workhouse', which seemed to show them to be a still recent memory. Not so long ago I mentioned this to a doctor who said, 'Yes, and they still exist but under another name'. Hmmmm!

[StephenFord 866]

Local authority "care" homes?

[Commo 1,292]

For the Workhouse you had to have nothing to give, for todays Workhouse, sorry "Care" home, you have to give everything you have.

[Bing 78]

'Char' is the word for tea here in Thailand, probably derived from the Chinese.

[Beefsteak 305]

"Sing at the table, die in the workhouse" was one of my Mums favourite pieces of lore.

She was always saying things like that, till my Dad glued her teeth up !......................