• This topic has 78 replies, 69 voices, and was last updated 8 years ago by br.
Viewing 39 posts - 41 through 79 (of 79 total)
  • Things that your gran used to say
  • alishand
    Full Member

    On running your own business and the decision of whether to expand (she ran a local estate agent business her whole life):

    “A small fire will keep you warm, a large fire will burn you”.

    That one has always stuck with me when considering work / life balance, whether to change jobs etc…

    SaxonRider
    Full Member

    “Wa-rsh behind your ears, and keep your pecker in your pants.’ Then she would laugh.

    She was always being inadvertently funny, and almost had a sixth sense for what was going on among her children and grandchildren.

    She was the best… and incredible woman.

    JEngledow
    Free Member

    It’s not something she says, but my Gran does leave the milk out (next to the kettle) while the bottle of squash is kept in the fridge 🙄

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middling Edition

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middlin...
    Latest Singletrack Videos
    alanf
    Free Member

    “Cough it up lad, it might be a lump o’ coil”

    yunki
    Free Member

    ‘The day I’ve had, I want to be put in me box and shot and burnt’
    ‘you ought to give up they fags’
    And of course, the timeless ‘look at you, you’re skin and bone, surely you can manage one more chop with your breakfast’

    Although I don’t know if sausage, egg, chips, beans, tomatoes, mushrooms, bacon and three lamb chops was the healthiest of breakfasts for a 13 year old..

    Malvern Rider
    Free Member

    If the wind changes your face’ll stay like that

    +1

    Also:

    (In absent-minded flat-toned general agreement) ‘yeess, yessss’

    (In response to Grandfathers frequent audible trumps) ‘Ooo – you dirty devil’.

    ahwiles
    Free Member

    perchypanther – Member

    Gymkhanaholiday?

    possibly, i couldn’t say.

    The ‘clever’ genes must have got lost somewhere down the family tree, i can’t even connect the answer (when i’m told it) to the clue.

    yunki
    Free Member

    ‘I’ll have yer guts for garters’ was her favourite if we were in trouble..
    She was five foot nothing with a cackling laugh and as fierce as a tigress..
    The most helpful and generous woman on the world.. I miss you Nan x

    It was my mate’s nan that shocked us the most though, when we sat down one afternoon to take some money off her for spends playing 3 card brag..

    ‘if I catch either of you boys cheating I’ll burn your face with the iron’

    We didn’t stop laughing for weeks 🙂

    Alex
    Full Member

    “if this was the wild west, you’d all be shot’ to me and my two brothers cheating at Whist.

    “I’ll come to the foot of our stairs” which I believe meant “I am shocked/a little taken aback”

    “Play outside, there’s enough blue sky to patch a hole in a sailor’s trousers’

    I’m keeping all these for future use 🙂

    cheekyboy
    Free Member

    “What do you want”
    “You must be hungry if you’ve come to see me”
    “Do you want an eccles cake”
    “Why doesn’t your mother feed you”
    “Will you go home now”

    mrsfry
    Free Member

    You look like your father
    You’re going to hell
    Kill all the English
    Keep my teeth when I die

    teasel
    Free Member

    Whenever she walked in on me watching a bit of horror like JCs Halloween she’d mumble something along the lines of feeling the evil coming out of the screen or something.

    🙂

    ‘kin weirdo.

    mcj78
    Free Member

    My favourite was “Hell Mend Ye” whenever I was proposing something unwise – it was accompanied by a special look that pretty much put the skids on whatever I was intending without so much as a raised voice… 😥

    digga
    Free Member

    When we were very young, staying at my gran’s in winter, she’d put our PJs on a clothes dryer in front of the gas fire to warm them before bed time. Then helping us get undressed, she’d always say “skin a rabbit!” as she pulled off our jumpers/tshirts.

    If we asked for anything (she could never do enough for us) she’d jokingly say “you awkward blighter!”.

    If anything went properly wrong she’d always shout “hell’s bells and a bucket of blood!”

    Used to give us mini schooners of sherry when we were all of about 7 years old too. Legend.

    pictonroad
    Full Member

    Don’t remember my Nan but my mate’s nan used to snatch a banana from him if it had black spots on the skin because “that’s where the *very bad word*’s touched them with their filthy hands.” 😯 😯

    When she died her dying wish was that her disgusting ancient Yorkshire terrier should be buried with her. Her wish was granted by having it put down the next day and sneaking into the graveyard at night with a trowel… 😳

    Harry_the_Spider
    Full Member

    A glass of Bar* lemonade with about 1ppm Ribena added, because any more would “give you the works”. Apparently.

    *All “fizzy pop” was Bar. This was THE LAW[/u] in Salford in the 1970s

    stevemuzzy
    Free Member

    “it wont be this at 7 in the morning”
    “you’re burning the candle at both ends”

    both relating to being out after 10…

    carlosg
    Free Member

    Every time I left after visiting I would give her a hug and a kiss she’d say ‘ and this is for you’ and force a tenner in my hand despite being over 20 with a job and a mortgage. Nobody argued with her even at 4’10” , I now live in her old house and think about her every day . Lovely lady!!

    pistonbroke
    Free Member

    Don’t really remember either Gran but my mother used to enjoy a slice of vendetta for pudding. 🙂

    failedengineer
    Full Member

    My ‘old’ grandma (b. 1885) used to call Asians ‘Stackipans’. She was also fond of reminding us that, “went ‘alf time in t’mill at 12, me”. Which was in fact, true.
    My ‘young’ grandma (b. 1905) used to say, “never trust a man who doesn’t drink or a man with a beard”.

    oliverd1981
    Free Member

    “When you startcourting – a ha’penny pie’ll soon be tuppence”

    MrNice
    Free Member

    my gran’s mark of approval for something/anything was to declare it “better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick”

    slowoldman
    Full Member

    Usually something to do with not wearing a coat and catching a cold

    “‘ave you not got a vest on”?

    seadog101
    Full Member

    “Did we have spuds when you came round last week”
    “No”
    “Oh, thats why they’re still in the oven then..”

    RustySpanner
    Full Member

    Aunty Martha.

    ‘Shape yersen’ – get on with it, get moving, stop daydreaming etc.

    Usually shortly followed by an exasperated ‘Ye shape like me arse’.
    🙂

    jekkyl
    Full Member

    After my grandparents died and we were going through their stuff we found some old cassettes that my grand father had made of me aged around 3 or 4 (and my siblings) being taught ‘paddy on the railway picking up sticks’ by my grandmother. Incredible to hear the voice of my long dead grandmother coming out of the speaker and little me trying to sing. Niagara falls!

    tang
    Free Member

    My Step Gran used to use the exclamation ‘Gordon’s Brewery!!’ She was from Walthamstow and it’s something her mother said.

    Malvern Rider
    Free Member

    “I’ll come to the foot of our stairs” which I believe meant “I am shocked/a little taken aback”

    Although Gran was from ‘posh’ Black Country’ Victorian stock, she’d still say ‘Well I’ll got’Anne’ (pronounced ‘arlguhTAN’)

    Who was ‘Anne’? And why why would she go to her? I may never know. Maybe ‘Anne’ was a polite name for heaven or hell?

    zinaru
    Free Member

    my gran was amazing – and came out with loads of crazy stuff.

    my favourite was ‘mind and wave to me when you get to the bridge’ when she caught me or my cousins picking our noses…

    Cougar
    Full Member

    I remember once when I was chattering away at the dinner table, “shut your mouth and eat your tea.”

    Buying my first midi-HiFi (remember those?!), my gran spent five minutes trying to persuade the sales assistant not to include the speakers as they’d make it too loud.

    Buying my second car aged about 20, wanted something a bit larger and she disapproved, “why don’t you get a nice little car like that?” pointing to a Peugeot 205 1.9 GTi… sure gran, if you’ll pick up the tab for the insurance…

    piemann
    Free Member

    For reasons that I still don’t truly understand (well, maybe), my gran used to call the nougat wafers you can from the ice cream vans a “black man”. (this was in central Scotland in the early 80s)

    Honestly, she used to send either my sister or me out to said ice cream van to get her a “double black man”…

    I miss her. RIP Gran Barr.

    perchypanther
    Free Member

    For reasons that I still don’t truly understand (well, maybe), my gran used to call the nougat wafers you can from the ice cream vans a “black man”. (this was in central Scotland in the early 80s)

    Be thankful that she never sent you to the chip shop for a black pudding…..or as my parents next door neighbour would have it,

    “a darkies walloper”. 😯

    Disclaimer – language used in the context of describing elderly peoples casual racism off of the 70’s. etc. etc.

    esselgruntfuttock
    Free Member

    One Gran, ‘those rabbits have been on my bed again’
    Other Gran, ‘your’e as daft as a brush!’

    soulwood
    Free Member

    I remember daft as a brush, never knew why the brush was considered daft and not other household cleaning items. Shot at dawn was another. My grandad would always say he couldn’t join us for another game of football or cricket due to having a bone in his leg.

    bazhall
    Free Member

    My Gran Hall and my Grandparents Angles used to say similar things to whats mentioned further up the thread. Reading these is bringing back happy memories and its getting a bit dusty in here.

    Miss you guys!!

    10
    Full Member

    ‘Wearing a hat inside will make you bald’ Then proceed to explain that’s why Grand-dad was bald, and Grand-dad was very bald!

    kennyp
    Free Member

    My 80 year old aunt still uses the lovely old Scots phrase “black affronted” meaning “embarrassed”. And never swears but does say “In the name of the wee man”.

    mark90
    Free Member

    “I might not be here next Christmas”

    She’s been saying that for about 25 years, since my Grandad died. I hope she’s not right for a while yet. 90 in April (day after the Queen).

    br
    Free Member

    “Feed a cold, starve a fever”

    Nobody EVER had a fever. No idea why I’m not 30st.

    “it’s not a dress rehearsal this”

    Referring to life, only one go.

    “you’re never too old to clip around the ear”

    The fact she was under 5′ never bothered her, and didn’t stop her throwing out drunks/fighters from her pub either.

Viewing 39 posts - 41 through 79 (of 79 total)

The topic ‘Things that your gran used to say’ is closed to new replies.