A friend used to use the term "Hell's Teeth!" as a curse of wonder, or awe. I never really understood it, but it seemed quite a good *curse*. It was not really swearing- though to my Grandmother, that could have been debatable, she regarded 'hell' as a forbidden word, & we were not allowed to use it, well.....not in her hearing.
"Damn" was another forbidden. I don't remember what she said when she was frustrated or angry. My Beloved Brother may remember. Drat? Bother? Darn?
Another friend used to say "Bloody Hell", & that seemed quite descriptive also. Cussing with meaning depends a lot on the inflection of the words. The absolute scorn & damnation of the words. Some people can make simple things like "Damn" seem like the ulitmate insult. While others can make the vilest of words seem like a small joke. "Oh Feck! " they might say. With a smile & a nod. Noone blinks an eye. Or "F@ck!!"
In our small rural town, our local Cinema owner was a Greek man. He had poorly pronounced English, but his handsome sons married local girls, & he continued to own & run the local Cinema. I don't know how he did it, but he seemed to know, & remember the faces & ages of every kid in town, who entered his Theatre. He knew the second every kid in town turned 13, & were thereby up for paying adult rates, to enter his movie theatre. He challenged them, on the very day they turned 13, & would turn them away, heartlessly, should they not have the required coinage to pay for admittance.
He would challenge them, should they have the temerity to argue & pretend to be younger than they were, demanding they provide proof! He would shout at them, saying things such as,
"You bludda buggers, you try to trick me! I know how old you bludda buggers are!! Don't try to lie to me!!"
Many a child could be found, sobbing on the steps, unable to enter because the parent had provided too little money for entry, thinking to fool "Old Graffas".
There was the Saturday afternoon Matinee to watch, the weekly serial, such an ongoing thrill. If you missed a week, it was dire! Then came the Main Feature! Oh, the excitement. Kids shouting, jeering, offering advice.."Watch out, he is behind you!" "Be careful, he has got a gun!" "Dont go in there!!" "Ohhh I can't look!!"
Pandemonium ruled. Pale faces would emerge after the show was over. Excited conversations would ensue. What is going to happen next week? What did you think of that? Did Old Graffas catch you out? Did he know you turned 13 or did you fool him? You are so short, how could he know you are 13?
All innocent compared to today's tricks & deciepts.
Which leads me to Blogger vagiaries. I was chuffed to be able to work out how to change my ID picture.
I was pleased to find all worked perfectly after the change. No penalty.
The the system decided the price to pay was to totally hide my right hand column. No blogs visible, nothing. Big Blank.
So I got bold, & tried to change the header. Which seemed to work in it it's poor fashion. So far so ..... well perhaps good. I hope I can visit you all tomorrow!!
Smashing Pumkins, the whole of 'Melon Chollie & the Infinite Sadness.'
21 comments:
As a child I loved jelly and always asked for it if off colour. Boiled eggs and bread soldiers was the other food I liked if unwell.
If I ever make jelly now I always set raw fresh fruit in it. orange in orange; strawberries in red, etc.It sort of puts some food value in it.
You were clever with your changes.
I can see the sidebar, but your header is huge and has a band of colour and a '565' running through it ?
Looks nice though !
:)
Love your new flower photo, your "calling card" when you leave a comment. I've heard "hell's bells" but never "Hell's teeth", it does sound good though!
Kim x
You seem to have lived in an interesting town!
Going to town to the "Pictures" on a Saturday afternoon was the social event of the week for us really wasn't it, when we were kids ? - A whole nine( 9) pennies ( 8 cents) to get in and maybe , 3 pennies spending money for half time too !! My favourites were the Cowboy and Indian serials Guns and bows and arrows again ! (Do you remember , - where the Cowboys chased the Indians or the Indians chased the Cowboys past the same trees or rock out crops every week ? -- Black and white footage too, none of this colour stuff !! --- The day you turned 13 the price went up to one shilling and three pennies ( 1/3) Great days -- and I always ,always wanted to be an Indian for some reason . You are right Meggie Old Nick was a shrewdy all right , but he probably needed to be !
i like to say "JESUS ON A HOT TIN ROOF" or "HOLY ASSCRACKERS"... both always get me "looks" when i drunkenly exclaim them in whatever public setting.
I am quite partial to "Jesus, Mary & Joseph!" It must have been a fave with Molly, I learned to swear at her feet :-)
Ah -- back to the days when most talk was clean. Such a nice time. WC Fields had some marvellous pseudo-obscenities, like 'Godfrey Daniel' and 'Mother of Pearl' and so forth.
Have you ever seen that delightful film of a very posh English mum teaching her utterly inept daughter how to drive? It's hilarious, as is her expletive: "Buggeration!"
Your blogger picture looks great. Sounds like your town was a great place to grow up!
Oh boy - down memory lane -- OUTDOOR movies, sitting in the back of the pickup truck. All 6 of us (4 kids). Plenty of room to play before the main feature. I seem to remember the Fire Department was the organizer. And, don't laugh now, bales of hay for sitting when there wasn't enough room in the car/truck. OK, no horses in this picture!
Thanks for the reminder.
You are such a great storyteller You have to write a book. Swearwords are quite a funny thing yeh. In Holland to say shit is quite common, meaning o jee. In NZ I was told of by the children. I couldn't stop so I managed to change it to shivers. Bugger is quite acceptable now in New Zealand since the, I think Insurance add, on TV. Do you know that add with the splashing mud.
Anyway I wish you a great day in your probably more warm country than ours.
Did you know your very attractive new header now says lifes's free treats...?
I'm letting my kids say bloody and bloody hell. I think it's funny.
I like all the changes. I wish I knew how to put a picture on my header...I tried some but they didn't fill the whole area or else were much too big. I can see your side bar and it looks great. Yep, "cuss" words are so much freely said these days. As for "sh*t", I always called that a "toilet word" when my children would say I was "cussing"... but I have about broke myself of saying any of those anymore.
You remind me of so many things. For a while when I was a youngster, we got free movies on Saturdays. All we had to do was go into a business in town and ask for the free tickets to be used at the movies. Of course we usually saw something in the five and dime that we just had to have, so the businesses made money too.
I like your new template and your new avatar. It's always fun to change.
My father's favorite swear word was "hell and damnation". He would run it all together "hell'ndamnation". When I first got married, I said it a couple of times, and my husband replied, "Oh, not her again..." :-)
(Helen Damnation)
Hi All, thank you for pointing out the double s in the previous header, SG! With a little fiddling about, I have altered it again.
What do you think? Is it too hard to read with the curly font?
I really like it Meggie and don't think it's difficult to read - I fancy doing something with mine but I'm too much of a technophobe to even start investigating the process - either that or too flipping lazy!! take your pick :o)
I like your new look. Everything looks lovely here! How about a Japanese swear word. "Chikishou". That should stop everyone in their tracks.
I'd either go a heavier font, or a more stand-out-colour on this one, yes it's a wee bit hard to read.
You're doing really well though !
Congratulations on the changes you make, with your blog things.
As to having a way to easily visit other blogs ~~ I've never had a list right on my own blog. I put them in Favorite Places. But now...
I use Google Reader. It shows me who made a new post. And it lets me go right to the blog site. So I can see all the 'pretty stuff.' :-)
Mari-Nanci
A pox on the parents who were behind trying to fool Old Graffas and didn't pony up enough money!
Hell's bells is my favourite curse at the moment. (Well, my favourite in terms of what I can actually say out loud in front of a three year old!)
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