Knox County TN mail list

knoxcotn-digest Sunday, January 7 2001 Volume 01 : Number 166

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Date: Sun, 31 Dec 2000 23:53:39 EST

From: RMcgi81640@aol.com

Subject: [KnoxCoTN] Re: Happy New Year,

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

To all of you who have supported my research in this last year, I wish you

the best

of a New Year in 2001!

Robert McGinnis

Knox County Cemetery Research

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Date: Mon, 01 Jan 2001 10:07:52 -0500

From: "Billie R. McNamara" <knox@tngenweb.org>

Subject: [KnoxCoTN] 31 Dec 2000 Sunday Afternoon Rocking

Ever wonder why those censuses just don't add up sometimes? Well we all

have "our days" when our world is topsy turvy and effects most everything

that happens, and I figure a census taker did too. Of course he might not

have realized just how far reaching the effects of his bad day might be…

The Census Taker's Home! (from the Sunday Afternoon Rocking series)

Well, I'm surely glad to be home, that I am. I tell you another day like

this one and I am good mind just to fill them papers out on memory and be

done with it. Here, put these socks over there next to the fire to dry

out, will you? Got down yonder this mornin and everyone in Household 451

through 486 was gone. Some big shindig going on down there. Good thing the

folks in 441 could tell me who they all was. Here, reckon you could go

over some of the writin on this here page? Got smeared a bit in the

rain. I think you can cipher most of it out.

Then them folks down in the holler got suspicious over a census. Said, and

derned if they had a point, what difference did it make who they was? Was

them guvment folks up in Warshington going to come down here to say howdy

do? So they finally let me write down they last name and first initial,

but I think they wuz havin a bit of fun with me when they listed who lived

in the house. Saw some winkin goin on and I believe I got the same house a

youngins in two or three places. It been a day, woman. Honey, git that

paper out of Johnny's mouth,will ya? I worked all day on that thing, and

no call to let him go chewin it up.

Went up the river a piece and tried to get that done fore it come a

downpour, but run into trouble there too. Ole Man Jenkins curr dog run me

off and I tell you, ain't no call to get eat up over such a thing as this.

They ort to be a limit what a man does for his country. Was lucky man down

the road mostly knew Jenkins was nigh on sixty years old and was living

there with his woman and five youngins from his first marriage plus a

passel from the second. We give em good Christian names. Best be doin

something bout this pen. It give out on me halfway through. See you havin

trouble too. Johnny! Hand that here, boy!

And I tell you I would ruther fight grandpap's British than mess with that

feller out on the ridge. He got out his shotgun soon as he seen me comin

and I went t'other direction. Had Jones tell me about him instead, and he

didn't rightly know the feller's first name…said they called him

"Squirrel", and it was ok just to put that cause wasn't nobody around here

claimin him no how, and they for sure didn't want the guvment knowin there

was any relationship. That coffee done?

Then got over to Smiths, and ole Hoss was in a nervous fit so wasn't no

getting information there. His woman havin another youngin and he looked

like he could run right through me when I went to askin how many youngins

he had now. Hightailed it out of there, and Miz Hart helped me straighten

that household out. Think we got most of the names straight, and as he has

had a youngin a year for the last ten, ages purty close too. Now look what

Johnny went and done!

I tell you, next time this come around I ain't gonna be no where in

sight. Farmin a heap easier, and I figger there folks round here what can

read and write and cipher and ain't no good fer nothing else we can spare

for this foolishness. Pass me another tater, will you?

Just a thought <BG>,

jan

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(Note: Afternoon Rocking messages are meant to be passed on, meant to be

shared...simply share as written without alterations...and in entirety.

Thanks, jan)

Sunday Afternoon Rocking columns are distributed weekly on the list Sunday

Rocking. This is not a "reply to" list, and normally only one message per

week will come across it, that being the column. To subscribe send email to

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Comments about the content of these messages can be sent to

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Date: Mon, 01 Jan 2001 10:11:37 -0500

From: "Billie R. McNamara" <knox@tngenweb.org>

Subject: Re: [KnoxCoTN] Re: Happy New Year,

And we you, Robert -- we're anxiously awaiting the new cemetery books (and

other things <g>) you've teased us about...

At 11:53 PM 12/31/00 -0500, RMcgi81640@aol.com wrote:

>HAPPY NEW YEAR!

> To all of you who have supported my research in this last year, I wish you

>the best

>of a New Year in 2001!

>Robert McGinnis

>Knox County Cemetery Research

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Date: Sun, 07 Jan 2001 12:49:10 -0500

From: "Billie R. McNamara" <knox@tngenweb.org>

Subject: [KnoxCoTN] Sunday Afternoon Rocking

Sunday Afternoon Rocking

"The Green Worm and Other Oddities of Speech" (from the Sunday Afternoon

Rocking Series)

Afternoon All,

"Ok, so the green worm got me," I have often said in a somewhat sheepish

tone with eyes lowered. And my father, when he was living, would roar with

laughter. Of course a person in our family would smile knowingly...but a

stranger might have a bit of a problem knowing exactly what was going on

with this strange "green worm" business.

They would also have a bit of a problem understanding what was meant when a

person announced he was "going to the Capitol" (outhouse), taking a trip to

"China Knob" (going downhome...and no, this was not the name of the

community at all and China Knob can be found on no map of the area), the

definition of a "breezy owl" (chamber pot), or acting like "Mammy Lewis"

when they made a land purchase. (Mammy Lewis was some vague person who

lived so long ago, no one in the family can quite remember who she

was...but they do remember quite clearly that she was fond of announcing

she "didn't want any more land, she just wanted what 'jined' her"). A

hearty meal was preceded by a simple prayer, "Thank the Lord for supper!"

which might seem less than dignified, but for the family that understood

its origins, it was truly a deeply felt prayer. And in later years, once a

hearty meal was complete and dishes sitting on the table needing some

attention, it was widely accepted that we would "just let Rosie do it."

(Hint: Rosie is most definitely not human).

In short, a stranger listening in on our family's conversations might feel

a bit like he had stepped into another world for which no translation

dictionary had the answers. And we are no different from most. That is part

of what makes us family, and part of what makes other families unique too.

A good deal of shared history and shared events have somehow translated

themselves into our speech, and even our names for one another. "Booshie"

bears absolutely no resemblance to Virginia Ruth's name. But a little girl

over seventy years ago could not pronounce her sister's name, and so it is

that folks may look askance when we refer to "Booshie" and not quite get

the connection that only the family understands.

The little figures of speech entered the family over the years, with first

one event and then another, sometimes genuine mistakes that simply became

accepted to say, and sometimes sly humor being appreciated to the point of

general acceptance as a legitimate family "saying" to be continued. Some of

the terminology was born in my own lifetime and I well remember the event

that brought it about. Some was born in the lifetimes of my elders and they

have explained to me the stories behind the strange little figures of

speech. And some....well no one quite remembers where they sprang

from...only that this is something the family always "said"...and I expect

that as surely as the color of my hair or the shape of my eyes, this or

that little saying is a legacy from an ancestor...and a remnant of a long

ago event that happened in a family.

And so, as surely as if a family were a unique "elite club" with secret

signs and passwords, those little bits and pieces of words, short little

sayings identify them one to another, and give them a bit of something no

one else quite shares unless one chooses to "let them in on it". As surely

as memories, as surely as physical features, as surely as the sharing of

names and ancestors, those little nuances of speech are part of the "glue"

that says a group of people belong together and can be called "family". I

expect it is so in all families...and I expect also that for the most part

we take those quirks of speech "for granted." We document our

names/dates/facts...we document events in memories and events written of on

paper...but we forget that we have a language legacy as well...and so

unless I tell my children how "the green worm" came to be ...the saying may

well continue...but the story behind it lost in the blurred past of a

family's history. Not that it is any earthshaking story, not that it is

anything more than a family's good laugh one day...but kind of nice to know

how a "green worm" managed to wind up in a family's vocabulary for

generations to come perhaps.

Now lest you think this bit of musing is less than scholarly keep in mind

that I truly do not have one of those "piled high and deeper's". And

therein lies another story.

just a thought,

jan

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Note: Afternoon Rocking messages are meant to be passed on, meant to be

shared...simply share as written without alterations...and in entirety.

Thanks, jan)

Sunday Afternoon Rocking columns are distributed weekly on the list Sunday

Rocking. This is not a "reply to" list, and normally only one message per

week will come across it, that being the column. To subscribe send email to

Sundayrocking-subscribe@topica.com

Comments about the content of these messages can be sent to

unicorn@sun-spot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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End of knoxcotn-digest V1 #166

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