Mountain folk sprinkle their talk with proverbs and proverbial sayings. Some of their language is pretty descriptive. The expressions help them say what they feel about everything, covering the field of life unto death. Whatever the occasion, a local is never at a loss for an appropriate saying in the local store or around the hearth fire, the talk is often sparked with wisdom and wit.
Chances are if you hang around a spell you’ll hear the following….
As pore as bear that’s wintered up in the balsams
Weddin’ without courtin’ is like vittles without salt
Good looks in a woman haint worth as much to a man as good cookin’ and wavin’ ways
Beauty never made a kettle sing
Never get your horse into a place where you can’t turn around
A buggy whip can’t take the place of corn
Those who dance must pay the fiddler
Whatever goes over the devil’s back will have to go under his belly
A lean dog for a long chase
An old dog barks sittin’ down
If the subject happens to deal with a wasteful woman, one is apt to say “she threw more out the back door than her man could tote in the front”.
A mountain man might sit silently by while an absent neighbor was being raked over the coals and then put a quietus to the talk by saying “I ain’t been in his shoes and I can’t gauge his footsteps.”
Then there are others such as:
A man without a knife ain’t worth a wife
Talk’s cheap but it takes money to buy bread and butter
It’s never too late to mend
No man stays far from a sweet mouth and a good table
Pretty is as pretty does
Where there’s bees there’s honey
The rain don’t know broadcloth from jeans
A woman’s excuses are like her apron, easily lifted
If you want to catch the calf, give a nubbin to the cow
What can’t be cured must be endured
Don’t neglect your own field to plant your neighbor’s
Don’t hist one foot until the other’s settin’ flat
You can’t teach your granny how to pick geese
You’d better watch a frisky heifer
Cast not the helve after the ax
A skittish horse won’t carry double
Don’t miss her no more than a cold draft after the door’s shut
Don’t smother the goose with the featherbed
He’s not the best carpenter who makes the most chips
Sap-risin’ time is lovin’ time
A lonesome heart ain’t good to bear
The back pays for the mouth eats
Don’t eat the lean and leave the fat
You can’t lose what you ain’t got
Feed him good and sweet talk him and he’ll hang close around your doorstep
Not worth the salt that goes into his bread
Sit down and rest yourself, settin’s cheaper’n standin’
The sun is the poor man’s clock
He’d buy a load of cord wood to peddle out in hell if you’d give him till Christmas to pay for it
He’ll take anything that’s not too hot to hold or too heavy to tote
All of which is by of recalling that folks in the mountains use some pretty descriptive language!