Now I have always taken those sayings of my youth for granted, and very rarely pondered on their origins or how they have survived from childhood and been passed on to my sons.
Most pop up without any effort and roll off the tongue to fit the occasion.
There will be many that I grew up with, but a few are still regularly in use. They include “piffy on a rock bun”, “the wreck of the Hesperus”, “black as Newgate’s knocker”, and “like the back of a tram smash”, all of which will be instantly recognized by anyone who was born in the first half of the last century.
They are what they are, instant comments on a situation, instantly used and then forgotten, but yesterday in a family conversation, it became apparent that our Polly had never heard the expression and was fascinated and amused when Joshua used it.
They were leaving to drive back to Leicester, I was on the doorstep watching, and Josh muttered “why is dad standing there ‘like piffy on a rock bun’?”.
Apparently, Polly had never heard Josh use the expression, but like his dad it will be rooted deep in his upbringing.
And that got me thinking about the shed loads of ones that are embedded deep in me.
Some are easier to track than others, and so “like the back of a tram smash” must come from mother and father, while others like Newgate’s knocker are much older.
Along the way there are a few more which I absorbed and can track specifically to a time and place. Of these “like Reggie Page” is fixed in the years I was with Kay who grew up in the north east in Seaham Harbour and went to school with Reggie Page, who could never quite dress himself.
So, his socks were always at half mast, his shirt buttons wrongly fixed and on a very bad day, he managed to get his jumper on back to front.
And so, the saying was born, which stuck with me and still on occasion tumbles out to fit the moment.
What fascinates me, is that as some of these fade through time and pass out of common usage, others will surface.
In the same way some have a specific place of origin. “Black as Newgate’s knocker", refers to the door handle of the old Newgate prison in London and will be one I heard from friends and their family, while “like piffy on a rock bun”, is apparently from the northwest, although mum who was from the Midlands and Dad from Gateshead both used it all the time.
Most I never questioned, and so it has been a surprise to me that “like a lemon” is the southern equivalent of “piffy on a rock bun”.
I suppose for generations many will have stayed local, but the advent of television and soaps like Coronation Street will have taken them in the front rooms of the entire country.
Of course, they sit with many more sayings which derive directly from popular shows on the radio and TV, which were either coined by the scriptwriters or made popular by a celebrity or comedian.
At which point I won’t show my age, or my preoccupation with the wireless over the television by quoting from ITMA, the Goons, or Take It From Here, and instead wonder just how many today will use the expression “the wreck of the Hesperus”, or know that it may originate from a poem by the US poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow which was in his collection Ballads and Other Poems, from 1841.
To which someone will mutter “well I’ll go to the foot of our stairs”.
Location; all over
Pictures, from the collection of Andrew Simpson
 |
| Me, 1961-62 |
There will be many that I grew up with, but a few are still regularly in use. They include “piffy on a rock bun”, “the wreck of the Hesperus”, “black as Newgate’s knocker”, and “like the back of a tram smash”, all of which will be instantly recognized by anyone who was born in the first half of the last century.
They are what they are, instant comments on a situation, instantly used and then forgotten, but yesterday in a family conversation, it became apparent that our Polly had never heard the expression and was fascinated and amused when Joshua used it.
They were leaving to drive back to Leicester, I was on the doorstep watching, and Josh muttered “why is dad standing there ‘like piffy on a rock bun’?”.
Apparently, Polly had never heard Josh use the expression, but like his dad it will be rooted deep in his upbringing.
And that got me thinking about the shed loads of ones that are embedded deep in me.
Some are easier to track than others, and so “like the back of a tram smash” must come from mother and father, while others like Newgate’s knocker are much older.
 |
| Record sleeve, 1920s |
So, his socks were always at half mast, his shirt buttons wrongly fixed and on a very bad day, he managed to get his jumper on back to front.
And so, the saying was born, which stuck with me and still on occasion tumbles out to fit the moment.
What fascinates me, is that as some of these fade through time and pass out of common usage, others will surface.
In the same way some have a specific place of origin. “Black as Newgate’s knocker", refers to the door handle of the old Newgate prison in London and will be one I heard from friends and their family, while “like piffy on a rock bun”, is apparently from the northwest, although mum who was from the Midlands and Dad from Gateshead both used it all the time.
 |
| Greenwich, 1979 |
I suppose for generations many will have stayed local, but the advent of television and soaps like Coronation Street will have taken them in the front rooms of the entire country.
Of course, they sit with many more sayings which derive directly from popular shows on the radio and TV, which were either coined by the scriptwriters or made popular by a celebrity or comedian.
At which point I won’t show my age, or my preoccupation with the wireless over the television by quoting from ITMA, the Goons, or Take It From Here, and instead wonder just how many today will use the expression “the wreck of the Hesperus”, or know that it may originate from a poem by the US poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow which was in his collection Ballads and Other Poems, from 1841.
To which someone will mutter “well I’ll go to the foot of our stairs”.
Location; all over
Pictures, from the collection of Andrew Simpson
And who is/was Gordon Bennett?
ReplyDeleteAccording to wilkie The expression is primarily used in the UK even though Gordon Bennett was an American. ... The term Gordon Bennett alludes to his wild ways, and perhaps originated as a euphemism for gorblimey.
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