Family Gatherings

In honor of the topic, I have gathered together several of my family's "sayings."

(These were mainly things my maternal grandmother said. I don't remember her very well; she passed away when I was three. However, my mom would sometimes say these things, prefaced by "As your Grandma Lottie would say...")

1. If it's not one thing, it's another.
2. Can't win for losing.
3. Kyarn (as in, that smells like kyarn.)*
4. Fire and save matches.
5. Sheis.**

(Now don't get me wrong, my grandmother wasn't a vulgar woman. There are a lot more of these that aren't coming to mind right now. But as a child I was always fascinated with the words that I didn't understand, i.e. Kyarn and Sheis, so those are the ones I remember.)

Here is one that my mom always says (not influenced by her mother, as far as I can tell):
"People often mistake kindness for stupidity."

Enjoy!
-Andrea


*I looked this word up in google just now and happened upon a very interesting piece called "The Language of Appalachia." Here is an excerpt:

Unlike my maternal grandmother, I say “carrion” rather than “kyarn”. In fact, I had no idea what she was talking about until recently when I mentioned the word to my husband. I told him, “Grandmother used to say, ‘That stinks like kyarn.’ I never figured out what ‘kyarn’ was.” He said, “Road kill.” My jaw dropped. “You mean, carrion? Kyarn is carrion?” “Yeah,” he said. “Put the Appalachian accent to it.” It made sense. (...)
So, I did a little research and learned that the Appalachian region has its own language. Linguists call it “Appalachian English”. The Scots-Irish settled the entire region known as Appalachia (all of West Virginia and portions of Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia) in the mid-1700s.

To read the rest of the VERY INTERESTING article, go here:
http://www.ego4u.com/en/read-on/countries/usa/life/appalachia

** An abbreviation of the German word, Sheiser.