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Old sayings that you heard in your childhood.

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GusB

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My grandad, on seeing a scruffy, long-haired man: "He looks like the Wild Man of Borneo."
That's one that my mother used on me a few times!

I was peerie heided trying to add to the Scots list contributed earlier.
That's one that I don't think I've ever come across. Which part of Scotland is it used in?
 

Mcr Warrior

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I was peerie heided trying to add to the Scots list contributed earlier.

That's one that I don't think I've ever come across. Which part of Scotland is it used in?
Might be Orkney / Shetlands.

Not one I've ever heard before.

The phrase apparently means one's head is spinning (like a top).
 

daveo

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We used to have the Alpine lorry where you could buy fizzy drinks and stuff. None of our parents could really afford it so we were told we could have “council pop”, ie tap water
The Alpine Lorry - plenty of colours but all one flavour!!!
 

ajs

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One from my gran of Sussex

How many beans make 5.

And she used to say the answer so fast with a smile on her face,

A bean, another bean, bean and a half,half a bean and a bean.
 

Busaholic

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Wasn't ''she's no better than she oughta be'' a Lancastrian saying too - uttered by Ena Sharples on at least one occasion, I'm sure, probably about Elsie Tanner in Coronation Street.
 

Rob F

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Some from my Leicestershire parents:

You’re like a fart in a colander —- you are not doing it properly

It smells like a pox doctor’s waiting room —- a bit smelly

You shot that in from the clock tower —- aimed badly
 

SteveM70

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Some from my Leicestershire parents:

You’re like a fart in a colander —- you are not doing it properly

It smells like a pox doctor’s waiting room —- a bit smelly

You shot that in from the clock tower —- aimed badly

Which reminds me. My dad’s family are from Leicestershire / Northamptonshire and he often refers to people (generally politicians, oddly enough) as being “as two faced as Melton clock”
 

SteveM70

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Was that saying a word play on Cockney rhyming slang?

The tower of Melton Mowbray parish church only has clock faces on two sides rather than four
 

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Calthrop

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One from my gran of Sussex

How many beans make 5.

And she used to say the answer so fast with a smile on her face,

A bean, another bean, bean and a half,half a bean and a bean.

My parents (from Chester and environs) had that one, but partially and kind-of in a way -- they described an alert and switched-on person as "knowing how many beans make five"; but with them, "that was it" -- wasn't expanded on.
 

DelayRepay

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One that always perplexed me in our area of Mansfield was when someone was in a bad mood they'd got a "monk on" .

Coming from Sheffield, our equivalent was 'got the face on' - as epitomised by the Arctic Monkeys - along with 'mardy bum' (someone being grumpy).

When we couldn’t remember what day it was during the School Holidays…
“What day is it tomorrow Granddad?”
“It’s…Friday and it’s Friday ALL day tomorrow!”

My dad's version was 'the day between yesterday and tomorrow'
 

Xenophon PCDGS

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Very many years old, my mother took me to see a friend of hers in Leigh and in the town market, a lady stallholder was loudly selling her wares, but the item that I will never forget was "Singing Lily's" which were large home-made Chorley Cakes. Any Lancastrians on the website ever heard of these?
 

xotGD

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A few from my family:

If someone is disagreeing just for the sake of it: "If I said s**t, you'd say sugar"

If someone is acting daft, they'd be described as "Willy Wet from Dryland"

Both of these were often directed at me, for some reason!
 

Spamcan81

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One from my gran of Sussex

How many beans make 5.

And she used to say the answer so fast with a smile on her face,

A bean, another bean, bean and a half,half a bean and a bean.

In Bedfordshire the answer was "two beans, a bean, bean and a half, half a bean".

When I was young, anywhere that was an unknown distance away was "two fields the other side of China". My grandfather would describe a walk that had taken him nowhere in particular as "there and back to see how far it is".
 
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Busaholic

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In Bedfordshire the answer was "two beans, a bean, bean and a half, half a bean".

When I was young, anywhere that was an unknown distance away was "two fields the other side of China". My grandfather would describe a walk that had taken him nowhere in particular as "there and back to see how far it is".
My grandfather too!
 

johnnychips

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If someone forgot to shut the door it was ‘Were you born in a barn?’ But the intellectual step up was ‘Are you Jesus or something?’’Why?’ ‘Because…’
 

xotGD

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When getting ready to go out, to ask if someone was all set to go:

"Are you right, John-Willy, are you right?"

I presume that this came from a song.
 

Gloster

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When getting ready to go out, to ask if someone was all set to go:

"Are you right, John-Willy, are you right?"

I presume that this came from a song.
There seem to have been a number of songs about John-Willie, who seems to have been a sort of Lancashire Everyman, or so it says on a site about Gracie Fields. Possibly it was a line from one of them.

EDIT: It is possible that the name was invented, adapted or popularised by George Formby Senior, father of his better known son (*).

* - Well, he would be, wouldn’t he.
 
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gg1

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A few more Black Country ones I remember:


"Get out the oss road" = "move, you're in the way"

"Like a fairy on a gob o' lard" = clumsy

"you're a bugger up the back" = "you're cheeky"
 

John Hunt

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Leicester childhood 1950s/60s -
Wanna croggy to the reccy? (offering a bicycle cross-bar ride for your mate to visit the local recreation ground/park)

Young children warned about the 'Nine o'clock horses' as bedtime approached. (amazingly, I cannot recall discussing this with other kids
or hearing any explanation from anyone of what the horses actually did)
 

Gloster

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When I was small and my grandparents stayed to look after me while my parents were on holiday, my grandmother used to say when it was time for bed (much earlier than my parents considered reasonable), “Its time to climb the wooden hills to Bedfordshire.” We lived in a bungalow.
 
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