Mom Quotes, Daddy-isms, and Nursery Rhymes

HER

Ever catch yourself doing this when you had a kid underfoot and (s)he was getting on that LAST NERVE ...

Things you said to yourself that you would never, ever say to your kids when you had them and then... you clap your hand over your mouth when you realize you just did! 😮

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I was thinking of the things my dad used to say today. He was an air conditioning and heating serviceman and a trustee at church. He took care of all our church’s air-conditioning, heating and some of the plumbing and I remember that he told me “to leave a place better than I found it!” 

Dad always said his two favorite pies were "hot and cold!" His favorite cake was applesauce cake made with black walnuts. And it was especially yummy with cream cheese frosting! 

I remember playing these games as a child: Basketball; Dodge ball; Hide & Seek; Hide the Thimble; Hopscotch; Hot Potato; Hula Hoop;  Jump Rope, Kickball; Mother, May I;  Red Rover; Relay Games; Simon Says; Softball; Tag; and Who Got the Cookie from the Cookie Jar? 

My Kansas grandmother taught all her grandkids how to play "Hide the Thimble." The more the merrier in this case. She said her mother taught her how to play it.  Grandma would hide the thimble first or she would choose someone to be "It" and then all the other players had to leave the room. Grandma or one of the aunties or uncles or sometimes the oldest child stood guard at the door so there was no cheating by peeking. "It" hid the thimble in plain sight somewhere in the room. The thimble could not be hidden behind or under anything, but could be seen from any corner of the room and often "It" had to check before sitting down. When "It" called okay, then all the players came back into the room and stood in the middle of the room. The first person who spies the thimble, is the next hider. If "It" hides the thimble so well that nobody can find it, then "It" may give clues like, "You are warm" meaning someone is close to the thimble and if they are next to it and still don't see it, then they are hot. If they move away, then they are getting cold. The game is a lot of fun and I taught the game to my in-law's family. It's surprising how well a tiny silver object can blend in with the contents of a room. 

I wasn't very good at active outside games, but I did try. I surprised myself though once and everyone else I think, when I won a game of 2-ball dodgeball in sixth grade. My first bicycle was a red boys bike and the first time I crashed it on a girlfriend's hilly front yard, I couldn't sit down for a week. smile! We had a heavy metal pipe swing set in the back yard. Dad set the feet down in concrete, so we could swing high on it without it falling over. Mom bought a commercial metal slide at a rummage sale at the New Santa Fe Christian Church and it stood next to the swing set. Later, mom bought us kids a metal fort. It was two stories tall -- we could climb up to the top story by ladder and slide down a pole in one corner like a fireman. 

I collected dolls and had a Barbie doll. She was a single lady -- she never kept company with Ken at my house. My sisters and I sometimes made our Barbie doll clothes out of the tops of stray socks or stitched clothing for them by hand from bits and pieces of rescued fabric that my mother tossed out after sewing up our clothing.  

Saturday mornings were for watching cartoons. I remember when the kids in school told me about Batman. I was so excited about it and asked my mother if I could watch it. Then I missed the whole show when I fell asleep on the sofa waiting for it to come on. We didn't have a remote control; we had to get up to change the channel on our black and white TV. We didn't get a colored TV or Atari until I was in high school. Our local PBS channel was on the "U" section of our dial. I remember watching Captain Kangaroo. I loved his side-kick, Mr. Green Jeans. Once my sister was on television when she and her classmates visited our local television channel to pay a visit to Torey Time, our local children's programming. 

Mom used to say a version of this poem:

Spring has sprung, the grass has riz I wonder where the birdies is The birdies are up high in the sky Dropping whitewash down in my eye I am good, I don’t cry I’m just glad that cows don’t fly.

She also used to tell us about the peanut and the choo-choo train whose heart was all a flutter, then along came the choo-choo train and he became peanut butter!

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HIS family used to quote favorite rhymes for fun. Ishmael used to say these:

"Entry, ventry, cutry, corn

Apple seed and apple thorn.

Wire, brier, limber lock,

Three geese in a flock.

One flew east, one flew west,

And one flew over the cuckoo's nest.

All the way out, you old dirty cloud,

Never saw a pretty girl, but what I liked her some."

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"Let's go to bed," said Sleepyhead.

"Oh no," said Slow, "let's eat a bite before we go."

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This one was accompanied by hand motions as a finger game. It never fails to amaze the little ones!

Two blackbirds

Sitting on a log,

One named "Jack"

And one named "Jill."

Fly away, Jack,

Fly away, Jill,

Come back, Jack,

Come back, Jill.

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Marie's dad, Wm. Thornton, used to say this one:

"Penny-nip, clip, clap, clam, roady-hoady, brush-him-over, Peter Pan-Dan, sigh-all-lo-dy."

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David said he can remember his dad saying that if he ever got into trouble at school, expect trouble at home.  How many of your parents said the same? Mine did!

David said a favorite game to play at his grandparents over their farmhouse was "Andy, Andy, Over." The object of the game involved throwing a ball over their house's roof to players on the opposite side to capture and add in team members. He said the two teams were usually divided equally, in this instance, I'll call them the A Team and Team B. Anybody could pitch the ball over from the starting team, say from Team B and as they threw it, they yelled "Andy, Andy, Over" giving warning to A Team that a ball was in the air. David said the trick was to just get it over the peak of the roof to roll or bounce a couple of times before dropping down into a catcher's hands.  The catcher and everyone else on the A Team then ran around to the other side of the house to try to tag anybody they could for their team.  The throwing team couldn't run until they saw people coming around the corner of the house and they could be coming from either side, so you had be alert. Also, Team B didn't know who held the ball, so they had to run away from everyone on the A Team. My husband said the game generally lasted about a half hour or so or until someone damaged a body part while running or getting bonked over the head with a ball. 

David said this to me tonight -- March winds bring April showers bring May flowers and June Bugs!

Got any mom quotes, daddy-isms, or fun jingles your family used to say? Please share in the comments below. 

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