What did you say?

“Aw sugar” My mother would say when she was upset when one of her wonderful cakes did not rise properly in our kerosene stove that we used in the summer until we got electricity in our house at the Wayside. That was about as harsh a swear word that Mama ever said. We could tell how upset she really was by the tone of her voice and not by any words she used. With Papa it was a little more definite and he had a colorful vocabulary in his own brand of swearing. He used the words “Sam Hill” when he was slightly bothered by seeing rain on a newly mowed, but not baled hay field or some minor mishap when one of his eight children got into trouble. When he was more disturbed he would say “Great Caesar” and “Great Caesar’s Ghost.” I never heard either parent use some of the more popular swear words that many people use but we knew better than to aggravate Papa past his use of “Sam Hill.”

Although I have been known to use harsher words my most common words were “Heck,” “Shucks” and “Oh Darn-it.” I won’t say what some of my stronger words I may be saying to myself. On occasion I would say “For Pete’s Sake.” I would use that one when I was around my brother in law, who’s nickname was Pete. He said he often got teased with that saying.

One of my children would say “Dadgum it” in a rather playful mood, such as drawing the wrong card in a card game or something not too upsetting to her. She also introduced me to the term “Horse Hockey”. She was amused that her minister father would sometimes say “For Heaven’s Sake.” Actually he was very careful not to use any type of swear words but he had a way of showing his displeasure by the tone of his voice.

Other phrases that you could often hear in a group of low key persons are: “My Gosh,” “Darn-it,” “Golly Gee,” “For Crying Out-loud” and many more which I am sure each reader can supply without any help.

You probably are asking yourself, ”Gosh, what is she doing? Is she trying to teach us how to swear nicely? Or is she just enjoying pulling up all of these mild swear words?”

I find myself upset at many of the phrases many young people use freely, but you can also hear such words among the elderly. I can’t help but wonder if their use of such words has increased with their age. I remember when we didn’t have much air-conditioning in the offices or stores around the Square that quite a few men had a “Spit and Whittle” group in the shade of the trees in the courthouse lawn. I remember hearing quite a few colorful expressions as I walked on the sidewalk on the north side of the Square to the north courthouse doors.

I cannot say I was dismayed that these older men were expressing themselves this way, but I still prefer the milder sayings of my elders of the past, when I thought they were using more polite phrasing. I guess I will leave it as I started it admonishing my readers to watch what they are saying to protect the future generations from falling into the same pattern that some of us elders have fallen into.

After all it is just as easy to let your feelings be known by your attitude and tone of voice as to use the harsher terminology.

When I read this column over again all I can say is “Fiddlesticks.”