I grew up in the North Georgia mountains and both of my grandmothers (born in 1920 and 1925) used this expression commonly. “I don’t know if I’m washing or hanging out (to dry)” is a reference to doing the laundry. They would use it as a metaphor for being confused, disorganized, distracted and/or simply exhausted.
Has anyone else else ever heard this before? It seems to be a Southern-ism, but my 56-year-old cousin in Los Angeles and I (40 and living in the ATL area) both say it all the time without realizing it. I’m just not sure if anyone who hears it knows what the heck it means? Or maybe they just dismiss us as eccentric (crazy) Southerners?
From ATL with some growing up in NC and never heard it. My grandparents are from Athens, and NC mountains. I DO remember Sream Bloody Murder. Not sure how that came about.
My late husband had an expression-- don’t know where it came from. When someone was really confused or unable to make a decision, he’d say “they didn’t know whether to shit or go blind.” Anyone ever hear that one?
I am Southern from an extremely long line of Southerners that goes all the way down. I know many similar phrases but I can’t say I have ever heard that one in particular. Southerners are good at making such sayings up and putting them to good use. There are hundreds if not thousands of them and many of them are town or even family specific.
I have an uncle that loves to describe certain events as all “assholes and elbows” meaning you are crowded in way too close together with people you don’t want to be around. There are references to the phrase itself on the web but in the way he uses it.
Another southerner checking in. I have not heard that particular saying, my family stuck with the standard “Don’t know whether I’m coming or going” to express that sentiment.
Yes, I’ve head it, and I’d love to know the origin of it.
The expression in the OP, no, never heard that one. My mother was more apt to describe a confused or disorganized state as being “discombobulated”, which is less vivid but shorter.
Same as ThelmaLou. I’ve never heard the OP’s phrase but it was instantly recognizable.
“… shit or go blind” was one both my parents used. They were from Chicago and born in the early '30s. I haven’t used or heard it from anyone else in years.
Yes - I heard it in about 1985 in Jax Beach, Fla, from a guy I dated. I thought it was great and have used it ever since. I like it so much better than “shit or go blind” which is just stupid.
As a kid in the Midwest, we’d watch All-Star Wrestling (aka Big Time Wrestling, the really fake stuff) after school.
As Mad Dog Vachon would be staggering around (after being clocked with a folding chair), one of the announcers would inevitably say “He doesn’t know if he’s fishin’ or cuttin’ bait!”
That’s what I immediately thought of, but never heard the OP’s washin’ idiom.
