Things you only hear in your family.

[Ant7t]

Got this idea from a post in the IW forum. Are there any things you remember hearing from family that you don't recall hearing anywhere else? Silly comments, and such included. I remember my grandma, swearing politely. She'd say 'mucking fuddle'. Also, she would comment on well endowed women, or women in costume dramas, 'her dumplings are boiling over'.

 

[Peppermint Patti]

My grans saying if she thought something was rubbish was "it's all my eye and Peggy Martin". We never found out were it came from. I never heard it from anyone then or since.

 

[historymystery]

My Mum used to say 'all my eye and Betty Martin' if she thought someone was spinning a tale. 'Always had his/her back teeth awash' was someone who liked their booze (think this was a Norfolk saying, but not sure, as was 'hair like a pound of wax candles'). 'Doesn't know the letter A from a bull's foot' was another for someone who behaved stupidly.

My OH had an elderly great-auntie who we used to secretly call 'Mrs. Malaprop' - you had to work out the real meaning of what she meant. Prime examples were a neighbour now home who had spent some time in 'expensive care' at the hospital (not funny for the neighbour, but so typical of auntie's conversation), and prices that were absorbent (she meant extortionate). Can't remember all of them and she was a lovely soul, so we used to often ache with trying not to laugh while we were there.

 

[Grizelda]

A 'venerable' disease is something my Great Aunt Dorothy (Dot) would say. I probably shouldn't have been listening and only realised that she'd got it wrong years later.

 

[merryone]

My Mum used to say 'all my eye and Betty Martin' if she thought someone was spinning a tale. 'Always had his/her back teeth awash' was someone who liked their booze (think this was a Norfolk saying, but not sure, as was 'hair like a pound of wax candles'). 'Doesn't know the letter A from a bull's foot' was another for someone who behaved stupidly.

My OH had an elderly great-auntie who we used to secretly call 'Mrs. Malaprop' - you had to work out the real meaning of what she meant. Prime examples were a neighbour now home who had spent some time in 'expensive care' at the hospital (not funny for the neighbour, but so typical of auntie's conversation), and prices that were absorbent (she meant extortionate). Can't remember all of them and she was a lovely soul, so we used to often ache with trying not to laugh while we were there.

My mum used to say that "her hair's as straight as a pound of candles" ....My mum used to say oh F & B when I asked what she meant, she just told me they short for oh flip n' blast, I later found out that they weren't lol! My grandfather (broad Devon) used to say "ee thinks 'ees body everyself" meaning someone who was full of self importance/ fancied themself I guess. And if my nan and grandad couldn't remember somebody's name they were referred to as Fred or Fanny Fanackerpan. The other memory was grandad singing this ditty that went "Little Betty Bouncer met an announcer down at the BBC"

 

[maymorganlondon]

My grans saying if she thought something was rubbish was "it's all my eye and Peggy Martin". We never found out were it came from. I never heard it from anyone then or since.

It must have been a thing in the early 20th century. I'm pretty sure I've seen it in either an Agatha Christie or Dorothy L Sayers detective story. Never heard it used in real life though.

 

[madaunty]

It must have been a thing in the early 20th century. I'm pretty sure I've seen it in either an Agatha Christie or Dorothy L Sayers detective story. Never heard it used in real life though.

https://www.worldwidewords.org/qa-all3.html

 

[Ant7t]

Fanny Fanackerpan

I know this one. I've heard it in-family too. Might even be the same Grandma.

 

[merryone]

My mum would often say "she's got a face like a barn door" when referring to someone (usually female) who wasn't what you'd call pretty!

 

[Peppermint Patti]

My mum used to say that "her hair's as straight as a pound of candles" ....My mum used to say oh F & B when I asked what she meant, she just told me they short for oh flip n' blast, I later found out that they weren't lol! My grandfather (broad Devon) used to say "ee thinks 'ees body everyself" meaning someone who was full of self importance/ fancied themself I guess. And if my nan and grandad couldn't remember somebody's name they were referred to as Fred or Fanny Fanackerpan. The other memory was grandad singing this ditty that went "Little Betty Bouncer met an announcer down at the BBC"

Oh yes my nan used to use Fanny Fanackerpants when she was meaning someone stuck up.

 

[Grizelda]

Oh yes my nan used to use Fanny Fanackerpants when she was meaning someone stuck up.

A face like the back of a bus.

 

[Peppermint Patti]

A face like the back of a bus.

A face only a mother could love .

 

[LV73]

In our family we'd use the word willock as a very mild insult 'don't be such a willock' which I suppose was an amalgamation of weedy and pillock!

 

[Vienna]

If my Mum saw someone who looked untidy or a mess then she say " She/he looks a right tuckle ". A tuckle was a Lancs word short for truckle which is a kind of bed, therefore implying the person looked like an unmade bed.
She called me a tuckle many times when I was a kid and had unbrushed hair, knee socks around my ankles, dirty clothes from playing outside etc and I found myself using the exact same phrase when my own children were little and sometimes when they were full grown teens and when one of my sons went into his Goth phase and another started wearing his jeans around his hips with the waist of his boxers on show . Now they`re grown men, one touching 50 they hate it when I remind them of those phases.
Mum had a neighbour called Doris who wore lots of makeup, hair backcombed within an inch of its life, very short skirts and dresses and red patent high heeled shoes, sounds right for the era, 1960`s except Doris was well over 70, spent every night in the local pub and whenever my Mum saw her, she`d cross her arms under her busom a la Les Dawson and say in a rather too loud voice, "what a tuckle !"
PS I always thought Doris was a lovely lady and to my childlike eyes she always seemed very sophisticated. Mum had other ideas especially when Doris brought home any of her male drinking buddies but that`s another story.

 

[merryone]

Another saying from my mum usually when we were shopping and she came across a large garment was "Twice round the gasworks" and how she'd warn me that the state of my bedroom is a fire risk and that the whole place would "go up like a tinderbox"! It used to scare the pants of me, but not enough to make me tidy my room!

 

[Peppermint Patti]

My dad used to say "sir spelt cur" about someone who was horrible.

 

[Grizelda]

A face only a mother could love .

A face only a mother could love .

A face like a bag of spanners

 

[Kit10]

‘No better than she aught to be’ and ‘Too sweet to be wholesome’ were two of my Mothers favourite sayings. These could be exclusively from Northern Ireland!