Golden Era Grandparents Sayings and Recipes

[Belladonna_dea]

For me, nothing beat listening to my grandparents tell stories of the past while eating some homemade southern cookin'! Would anyone like to share stories or sayings of that era? Recipes?

I'll start.

This recipe is called Crazy Cake which was popular during the Depression and does not contain eggs. It's pretty good as a stand alone cake and is great for people with allergies....but I stuck grand marnier orange liqueur on top and then maraschino cherries and then whipped cream on top of that. You could pretty much put those three things on a dead skunk and it'd be alright to eat.

Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups cold water
Directions
1.Sift flour, sugar, salt, soda, and cocoa together into a 9 x 13 inch ungreased cake pan. Make three wells. Pour oil into one well, vinegar into second, and vanilla into third well. Pour cold water over all, and stir well with fork.
2.Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 to 40 minutes, or until tooth pick inserted comes out clean. Frost with your favorite icing.
~~~~~~~

 

[LoveMyHats2]

For me, nothing beat listening to my grandparents tell stories of the past while eating some homemade southern cookin'! Would anyone like to share stories or sayings of that era? Recipes?

I'll start.

This recipe is called Crazy Cake which was popular during the Depression and does not contain eggs. It's pretty good as a stand alone cake and is great for people with allergies....but I stuck grand marnier orange liqueur on top and then maraschino cherries and then whipped cream on top of that. You could pretty much put those three things on a dead skunk and it'd be alright to eat.

Ingredients
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups cold water
Directions
1.Sift flour, sugar, salt, soda, and cocoa together into a 9 x 13 inch ungreased cake pan. Make three wells. Pour oil into one well, vinegar into second, and vanilla into third well. Pour cold water over all, and stir well with fork.
2.Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 to 40 minutes, or until tooth pick inserted comes out clean. Frost with your favorite icing.
~~~~~~~

I am gonna make these tomorrow! Yummy!

 

[Dubya]

My nan always used to say: "There's many a slip twix cup and lip", meaning nothing is certain.

 

[Shangas]

Some of the things my grandmother once told me by way of advice are not to be repeated in polite society.

But to a ten year old boy, they were proof positive if any was needed, that our grandparents are not and never were, the squeaky clean things that we believe them to be.

Gran was a pretty superstitious person. She always told me never to hand her stuff over my shoulder without turning around first. Just make sure that there weren't any devils hiding behind my back. I forgot to do this once and she told me off good.

 

[Belladonna_dea]

Nice Dubya and Shangas that is true, our grandparents were young once but being wild back then wasn't as accepted as it is today and in my house, never spoken of. As I've gotten older I've realized all that advice and common sense from life experience wins over anything a Doctor or such type person tells me to believe. My grandmother always use to say "Goodnight a livin'!" or if someone burped "Bring it up again and we'll vote on it" They always had a saying for everything and a way to explain something.

 

[Marzena]

I have never known my grandparents, they were all dead before I was born. But thosesayings were repeated by Mother as her Mother's:

1. Every good deed will be punished.
2. Many deserve, few succeed.
3. If we have no culprits, at least let's have the punished.

Granny died in 1944.

 

[rue]

Oh my family is full of sayings and they all came from my grandparents and probably before them. I still use every one of these.....

Beggars can't be choosers.
Two hands for beginners. (when handing a little one a cup)
Crazier than a mud fence.
Runnin' around like a chicken with its head cut off.
Nuttier than a fruitcake.
Dead as a doornail.
Knee high to a grasshopper.
You're lying like a rug.
Let's cut a rug. (let's go dancing)

And these are a little off color, but hopefully okay to put here:

I'm sweating like a whore in church.
I'm off like a whore's drawers.
Sh*t or get off the pot.
So poor they don't have pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of.
Colder than a well digger's a**.
Up Sh*t Creek without a paddle.

There's also one about Jesus in a rowboat, but I never got what what my grandmother meant..... and I probably shouldn't put it here anyway or it might offend some loungers.

 

[Rathdown]

Whenever someone or some thing, usually political, would annoy her, my great grandmother would usually say, "Where are the cossacks when we need them?"

 

[MissLaurieMarie]

My grandpa, who was a rancher for all his life (still is from his easy chair) always called a whiner a 'boo calfer'
My mom always says 'doesn't that just frost your bippy' when something ticks her off.

 

[TraditionalFrog]

I don't really recall any specific sayings, however my mother's father used to call soda soady, the refrigerator an icebox, and the couch was almost always a davenport. I understand the first two, but not sure about the origin of davenport for a couch. The only thing I can think of for daven is that it is a Jewish term for praying, but I doubt this, especially as he wasn't Jewish. Any ideas?

 

[Bluebird Marsha]

Dinner conversation as discussed over the grandparent's table...

Pure profit is hard to come by.
In a long southern drawl: Well now.... (followed by a careful explanation of why what you just said, was completely wrong)
Did you mean to do it that way?
Burnt offerings and excuses (granddaddy's description of granny's cooking- which is why he hired Mrs. Hattie to come in and cook!)
GET your elbows off the table! You weren't brought up in a barn!

We were and are a bit of a hard crowd. But we keep our elbows off the table, and always say please, ma'am, and sir.

Mrs. Hattie: chocolate meringue pie... fried chicken... biscuits with hot apple sauce.... Lord she was great. And not just for the cooking.
Now I'm hungry.

 

[Tomasso]

not sure about the origin of davenport for a couch. Any ideas?

It's a genericization of couch or sofa; like kleenex, band aid, etc...The furniture maker A. H. Davenport marketed a popular line of sofas. It was a regional thing, mostly midwest.

 

[Dubya]

....... and the couch was almost always a davenport. I understand the first two, but not sure about the origin of davenport for a couch..

Strangely, the British call a writing desk a Davenport...............................



Antique Victorian walnut Davenport.

 

[Atticus Finch]

Here's a few of my paternal grandmother's sayings. She was born in 1889 and passed away in 1967.

A person of modest means was, "As poor as a church mouse."

A very thin person could, "Hide from a thunder storm under the clothes line."

A very frugal person was, "Tighter than Dick's hat band."

A lazy person, "Ain't been seen working many Saturday afternoons."

An untrustworthy person would, "Steal the lard out of a biscuit."

Any motor that wasn’t operating smoothly was, “Running like a three-legged dog.”

An odd person was, “Quar (a perversion of the word queer) as a football bat.”

A church dinner was a “gut stretcher”.

A hard rain was a “frog strangler”.

And she had many other sayings that were much more descriptive, but which cannot be printed here.

AF

 

[AtomicEraTom]

All of these are still used in our household.

Also:
Coon's age - as a measurement of time.
Shivering like a dog sh***ing tacks.
Church key - can opener

Beggars can't be choosers.
Runnin' around like a chicken with its head cut off.
Dead as a doornail.
Knee high to a grasshopper.
You're lying like a rug.

And these are a little off color, but hopefully okay to put here:

I'm sweating like a whore in church.
Sh*t or get off the pot.
So poor they don't have pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of.
Colder than a well digger's a**.
Up Sh*t Creek without a paddle.

 

[O2BSwank]

In the old days, before political correctness, or maybe just sensitivity ,adults clearly weren't afraid of making judgements on any subject. Nor were they afraid of speaking their mind. Their sentiments may seem a bit harsh to us today but they reflect the lives of people who worked hard and believed in maintaining socially correct behavior. They weren't concerned with hearing or offering excuses. Just do the right thing and keep quiet. One of my favorite expressions is from Henry Ford who was being sued about something or another. "Never complain and never explain"

 

[rue]

GET your elbows off the table! You weren't brought up in a barn!

We use that one too! It's also used if you left the door open.... Close the damn door.... you weren't born in a barn!

Or "Close the door! We're not paying to heat (insert the city were you live here)!

Strangely, the British call a writing desk a Davenport...............................



Antique Victorian walnut Davenport.

That's the only Davenport I knew of as well. I had no idea about the couch maker.

Gorgeous example by the way!

All of these are still used in our household.

Also:
Coon's age - as a measurement of time.

I use this one too

Also....

"He has more problems than Carter has pills."

 

[AtomicEraTom]

We use that one, too. Any time a friend talks to me, they use 'coon's age' because it's one of my well-known phrases and they are amused by it.

Also, some regional ones, popular with Milwaukee natives, that I get teased about around these parts.
'aina?' - isn't it so? Often put on the end of a sentence.
'Hey?' - similar to aina? At the end of a sentence, such as "You had fun today, hey?"
'Ya hey?' - a general reply to a statement
'M'waukee' - How natives often pronounce Milwaukee
All over the region, here:
bag pronounced 'baig' same with other words of a similar sound.
pronounced 'ah' sounds in words like Wisc'ahn'sin

"He has more problems than Carter has pills."

 

[LizzieMaine]

"You're a Kid.
And I'm a Goat.
You Stink.
And I don't."

We had "colder/dirtier than a clamdigger's a**", and if someone was really conceited you'd hear "Well don't he think he's the cat's a**."

When my grandfather was really irritated by something he'd growl out "A**hole, have an apple." Which made no sense to me at the time, and still doesn't, but it's a good all-purpose interjection.

Whenever you tried to put something over on my grandmother she'd fold her arms and draw herself up to her full 4-foot-11 and snort "Yeah, that's your story and I'm stuck with it." And if you ever used the S*** word in her presence, she'd retort "You will if you eat roughage."

My grandfather, for some reason lost to the mists of time, really disliked Italian people -- which is odd since his grandmother was one -- but he never used any of the familiar ethnic slurs of his generation in referring to them. Instead they were "ravioli rasslers," which brought to my youthful mind bizarre images of a swimming pool filled with Chef Boy Ar Dee.

 

[Connery]

"You're a Kid.
And I'm a Goat.
You Stink.
And I don't."

We had


I'm rubber, you're glue
Whatever you say to me goes back
and sticks on you.