Hello 09
I love living in Tennessee, but there are some weird things about the south. Ok, let’s be honest, there’s sort of a lot of weird things about the south. Anyways, Geoff the Great has been coming home from work with odd stories. Some of the people he comes in contact with are very southern and have a plethora of distinctly southern, um, charms, that we are entirely unaccustomed to.
He told me that over the last week he’s heard pages of ‘little bits of advice’ for the upcoming New Year. For instance, one lady told him that she’s saving all her laundry to do on January 1 so that she won’t have to do laundry for the rest of the year. Apparently, the saying goes that anything you do after the stroke of midnight on New Years will be something you don’t do for the next 364 days. My husband promptly ended his story by telling me he’d be sleeping on the couch New Years Eve.
He also heard that it’s good luck to eat black eyed peas and hog jaw on New Years Day. It took him forever to figure that one out because the southern customer who told him that piece of important counsel kept pronouncing it as, “Yeh’needs teh east you sum b’eyed peas and hoshzaw come New’Ears”. I don’t know if I’ll ever get the language down while we’re out here.
In other superstitious news, according to Chinese folklore / history, we are going into the year of the Ox. Geoff the Great happens to match up as an Ox according to his birthdate. Last year was the year of the Rat, which happens to match up to my birthdate. What does that mean in a practical sense? Um. I have no idea.
In the Philippians, children jump up and down when the clock strikes 12 to ensure they will grow taller.
In Norway a rice pudding is made with a hidden almond, the person who receives the almond is guaranteed wealth in the coming year.
I wonder how these things get started and who thinks them up.
In other news, I hope you are making plans for the upcoming Valentines Benefit / Dance. There are some updates here. It will be a very fun time, and it will also serve to help this beautiful family. We are really looking forward to seeing old friends and some new friends. You should make plans to come. It will be really special. Plus…they say that dancing in the south on Valentines Day will keep you safe from being hit by giant meteors for the next three years. So, um, yeah, you should definitely try and make it.
I am glad that it is 2009. I am looking forward to seeing what the Lord will bring our way. I pray He will strengthen my faith, increase my love for Him and keep me, and my entire family, walking closely with Him and each other. I pray the same for you, as well. : )
Rejoice in Him always. I say it again, Rejoice! Philippians 4:4
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January 1st, 2009 - Posted in 2009, Uncategorized | | 23 Comments 23 Responses to ' Hello 09 'Leave a reply |
on January 1st, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Every now and then we pick up an older couple on our way to church. I can’t even tell you how much I love listening to them talk. They are the epitome of East TN. Their slang and dialect is priceless, and I can’t record a single bit of it because it wouldn’t make sense to anyone unless you live around here! And yes, they were saving up bit of their “leffover cained hayim” to have on New Years.
on January 1st, 2009 at 3:36 pm
How funny! I love your goal for your family, I couldn’t think of a better one! It’s one I have too.
Angela
on January 1st, 2009 at 3:44 pm
Oh, another barn dance that I would so love to join. I also am very heart warmed by Misha’s story. I read about them months ago and it is just amazing what God is doing in their lives and what He could do in all of our lives if we just let Him.
on January 1st, 2009 at 4:42 pm
I can totally relate. With my current stint as Walmart cashier extraordinaire, I have had the distinct pleasure of hearing all about black eyed peas for luck and cabbage for prosperity and evidently you eat corn bread with them because it tastes good. When we moved to southeast Texas we were broken in by repeated offers of “weiners” (aka – hot dogs) and ice cream which when pronounced with a southern drawl makes you think of some shared preparation H ritual. Yep – it’s very odd living in the south.
on January 1st, 2009 at 5:14 pm
Good prayer for your family… you can pray those things for me too if you think of it. My prayer? I hope that the Lord will make me LESS CRAZY in the coming year. 2008 sure went out with a boom.
on January 1st, 2009 at 7:44 pm
jess… that made me laugh
But nope, i think crazy is in our genes. And it gets worse with age. Just embrace your inner lunatic and make the best of it.
Cheers!
on January 1st, 2009 at 9:23 pm
We visited with Misha’s family
today. They are such a delight.
What a beautiful witness they are
for Jesus Christ!
They also have an amazing story
about how they got together…
very appropriate for YOUR favorite
holiday Valentine’s day! (I think I
read that last year on your blog,
right Jen?)
Anyway, please read their story, it
is AMAZING!
http://being-molded-in-his-image.blogspot.com/2008/07/our-love-story-and-providence-of-god.html
Now I think I’ll sing a chorus of
Amazing Grace, because I used the word
amazing so much.
on January 1st, 2009 at 9:27 pm
“In the Philippians, children jump up and down when the clock strikes 12 to ensure they will grow taller.”
Does that mean in the Bible or the Philippines?
on January 2nd, 2009 at 7:50 am
Happy New Year’s, Jen!
I don’t think we have many New Year’s traditions here–we used to eat French meat pie every January 1st, but making that from scratch doesn’t happen when you’re sick. 🙂
Oh, and I hate black-eyed peas! Thank goodness I’m up north. 🙂
on January 2nd, 2009 at 7:58 am
“My husband promptly ended his story by telling me he’d be sleeping on the couch New Years Eve.”
SO funny!
on January 2nd, 2009 at 9:45 am
The jumping thing doesn’t seem to be working for the people in the Philippines. LOL My mom always said that what you do on the first day of the year, you have to do everyday. She’s from Kentucky. I did laundry this year.
Have a happy and blessed new year!
on January 2nd, 2009 at 10:12 am
Jul… that is SO funny, I am such a dork. My spell checker must’ve fixed that for me when I spelled Phillipines wrong the first time. And YES, their love story is so, um… I have no adjectives. I read it yesterday, then Coie read it and then I told Geoff all about it. wow.
Barbara… i’m glad somebody got that. I thought it was hilarious, too.
on January 2nd, 2009 at 12:44 pm
I only bring that to your attention because I am the QUEEN of typos. : )
So that qualifies me, right?
But you could go with Harvey Bluedorn and have it critiqued by someone who actually understands English grammar.
http://www.triviumpursuit.com/search/?cx=014818611696659696987%3A7xzj34dkdh0&cof=FORID%3A9&ie=UTF-8&q=grammar&sa=Search#961
on January 2nd, 2009 at 2:52 pm
Dear “Southern” ones,
I lost your phone number! You think I’m a real dork now, don’t you? We have had a houseful of head colds and puking this entire week. Lovely times. Please forgive me! I really want to come visit you in the worst way! It’ll just have to be next time I’m in town. Sniff. Sniff. Back to the john.
on January 6th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
Oh I just loved this post! Mostly because I just came back from GA last week (where I was born and spent the first 16 years of my life living in) and I never adapted the southern draw…not sure why-I kind of like it. The whole time we were down “thare” I found it comically cute, and also sad. Some Georgia folks, when they talk, it’s slow and sweet-very charming! Then with some other Georgians their pretend ignorance made me want to choke them because they were acting like they had NO education…not good for the southern charm if you ask me. A good example: one male person said “Thay caulled n suaid thay luvd them thar surweet purtaito piiiez I made.” ERRRR southern draw does not constitute purposely acting out southern ignorance. If it were true to southern from it should have went something like this:”Thay just caulled ta say thay lluved miii swaeet patato piiies!”
Your post made me laugh!
Faith
on January 6th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
southern form…not southern from…duh!
Latte
on January 6th, 2009 at 11:02 pm
In response to Latte’s post, I think as homeschoolers we definitely should strive to put our “best feet forward”,especially when it is visable to all in cyberspace. You know that many enjoy disparaging our intellectual prowess. So…when commenting on the dialtect, intelligence, etc. of others, we should probably review our own. I cannot imagine what some of the highbrow homeschoolers will think when they see a “drawl” called a draw, or someone assuming that one’s dialect is related to one’s acumen. As a native Southerner I particularly enjoy reading these types of assumptions. Although I know it is not a moral judgement, it is never the less judgemental. I reminds me of Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:3-5 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?
And by the way, a drawl is very much Southern, but is also characteristic of Australian English, espscially Broad Australian English….daaarlin.
on January 6th, 2009 at 11:23 pm
Girl, TELL me about all those Southernisms…LOL! I’ve been in the South for 14 years, so I think I’ve finally got it.
Anyway, I didn’t realize that you weren’t a “native”. Where are “y’all” from? 😉
on January 7th, 2009 at 9:05 am
…from northern cali, gayle : )
on January 7th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
Hi! Jen,
Happy New Year. I know it’s a little late. Our monitor died right before Christmas. Still waiting for our new one but using an ancient not so friendly on the eyes one for now.
Just wanted to stop in and say hello!!!
It looks like you all had a great Christmas.
Crazy traditions~who knows where they come from?!
Ruth
on January 7th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
draw was a typo…something I am good at, lol! My issue has nothing to do with accents, or even grammar(something I am good at being bad at, grin!), its the purposeful actions to make others think you can’t speak somewhat well or that very bad grammar goes hand and hand with southern accents. Most southern folk do not speak in such a way, yet every now and then we would find some do, and I just don’t understand why? It’s like they want to sound redneckish (very “you might be a redneck if”) but it does not come off that way one bit. It comes off like they are trying to show off their accent, but it’s really not in good taste! Heck even Jeff Foxworthy doesn’t talk like that except in his jokes.
Listen I am all for the fun of bad grammer…you should read my blog! But there comes a point when people need to not show off really bad grammer and play it off as sweet southern grammer…it dilutes the appeal of the southern drawl, and my love of it’s charm.
No plank in anyone’s eye, no judgment-that I don’t make to their face-and trust me I do tell them like it is!
Faith
on January 10th, 2009 at 6:10 am
How funny! I hope you had your black-eyed peas for New Year’s and hog ‘jowls’. I do the peas, but not the jowls. Can’t stand ’em. The New Year’s day tradition of getting work done is one I remember my Mom and Grandma following faithfully–with a twist.They always said, “What you do on New Year’s, you do all year long.” The gist of it is to start the New Year off right by getting chores done, having a clean house, and possibly even have company over. It’s kind of a mountain version of Flylady. If you think we East Tenn’er’s are hard to understand now, you should have heard the ones who grew up without television. My great-grandparents were almost unintelligible to me–a native!
on January 12th, 2009 at 1:24 am
As a true Southern Heart, I confess to being more than a little jealous that you are in my homeland and I, on the other hand, am on a mountaintop in Oregon. Granted, the view is beautiful here but, honestly, it’s not the SOUTH…the gracious, friendly, wonderful SOUTH! The language differences are colloquialisms…every part of the country has them…as an English major, that was an interesting fact to come across. I wouldn’t trade my Southern accent for anything and love all the Southernisms…not to mention the Southern cooking and churches! So, if you need any help with translating the language, just let me know…I spent quite a few decades there and love it still!
Blessings,
Dianne
http://mysouthernheart.blogspot.com