Yelling = Hollerin’
I understand what you are saying/catch your drift = I smell what yer steppin’ in
To Really not All that Bright-
list of colleges and universities in Indiana:
Really few “ofs”, and none in Indiana University
“fat lighter”
“fat lighter WOOD”, or — at least as often as not — shortened to “fat lighter’d”
Yep, I’ve always heard/used “fat lighter’d.” Also, “don’t let your alligator mouth overload your canary ass.” And “meaner than a sore-tailed cat.” Or “nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs.”
I refrain from mentioning several of the more colorful ones I heard growing up that are out-and-out racist (good flavoring for a book on the era perhaps as I think the vernacular dialogue is a great way to portray mindset), but I will mention “That’s mighty white of you” as one that I heard constantly used as a facetious compliment.
A couple were misogynist as well: “you carry on like a woman” was a big one for the “feedstore set”.
“Older than God” was used a lot.
“Dummer than a hundred chickens.”
“Nervous as a pregnant nun” (I’m gonna assume this drifted south from the north or up from Louisiana where there are a lot more nuns than in the Bible Belt, but who knows).
“Coonass”- contrary to its sound it’s not officially racist- it’s ‘official’ meaning is a Cajun- but it came to be used for anybody who lives in a really really remote and squalid location (i.e. remote & squalid even by rural standards- take three dirt roads, park, walk a mile, get in a dingy and go to the third shack on the swamp" type remote).
“They’ll have to hit Bertie with an ax on Judgment Day” (meaning: Bertie’s very old and very tough).
“Enough here to feed Cox’s Army” (meaning lots and lots of food) was one I heard a lot. It’s a reference to a real event- Coxey’s Army- but the ‘ey’ sound at the end was usually dropped.
Reminds me of yestiddy on the train (the underground choo-choo that takes you from Point A to Point B in the City not the Illinois Central sort of train).
I hear truly tuneless singing. Thinking it’s going to stop, I go back to reading. It continues.
I look up and find the source. Guy’s singing with earphones in. He notices me looking and nudges his companion.
Companion: What, you don’t like oldies.
Me: I like oldies fine. I just don’t like whatever it you’re doing, and I’m sure that oldies singer wouldn’t like it either.
I slay me.
Ain’t none-a y’all e’er been to uh juke joint (sounded more like “jook”)?
I remember being carried to a couple when I was a little kid. Since I lived in a dry country in Mississippi, they usually took place near somebody’s house way back in the woods and everything was kind made out of scraps of woods, including the trough that held the iced beers that would be sold. I don’t remember much about the music they played or if they played any at all.
My father was a bootlegger for a while when I was younger, so I’m sure he sponsored a few. This was during a period of unemployment for him. Don’t know why that conservative sheriff didn’t see the boot-strappiness of it all, and the entrepreneurial spirit this nigra was displaying and was always trying to arrest him.
One I heard the same time everybody else did is from War Games, when Barry Corbin says
Per both Corbin and Broderick, Barry was told just before that scene to “improv something that’s both gruff and folksy” and he remembered this line that his uncle used to say. Also per both accounts, when he said it on set they lost the shot because everybody fell apart.
I always also heard it in the context of consuming enthusiasm or obsession, usually with the implication that it was misguided.
“That boy is all eat up with video games.” would be an example.
I always liked the classic saying “I wouldn’t piss on him if his ass was on fire.”
Oh, and “holler” meaning “to call” is not uncommon among the more rusticated folks here; I use it on occasion myself when I’m not thinking, or hanging out with some country buddies of mine.
You remember, folks used to go “across the river” to the juke joint out there. I was out there one time standing in the parking lot when a dude came flying out (like a scalded dog, I reckon) with the owner hot on his heels, brandishing a shotgun.
Another time I wasn’t there but my ex-husband told me about this woman we knew, grabbed the cue ball, made a fist and knocked out another ol’ gal’s teeth.
Daddy tells me about one out in the woods - think it was called the Mark 3 club - like what you’re talking about, a real ramshakle place; he said it was the kind of place where they wouldn’t let you in lessen you were with someone else’s wife; they checked at the door and if you weren’t carrying a gun they offered to rent you one. 
@ Siam Sam:
The “cuter than boots on a rooster” came to me compliments of a cyberfriend who lives in Kansas and she said it was a family expression. I’m thinking that many of these phrases are the sort of “in-group speak” that any homogenous group of people indulge in to remind each other that they belong.
Here’s another:
“It’s darker in here than the inside of a cow with her tail shut down.”
And another:
“I’m so poor I can’t pay attention.”
I have heard people use these expression. True. Didn’t think it made them sound like stereotypes or ignorant. Call it local color.
Okay, I was born and raised in a small town in Mississippi and I’ve only heard about a third of these. Maybe these sort of sayings vary a lot state by state and can’t be simply generalized as “southern” sayings.
I remember a few my Mother used to say and she was from South Carolina. Here are some of my favorites:
- It’s colder that a frog’s behind.
- It’s colder than a well digger’s butt.
- She’s been runnin’ around like a chicken with it’s head cut off!
- Honey, I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck.
- Your eyes were bigger than your stomach.
- He don’t know his butt from a hole in the ground.
“He don’t know his ass from a hole in the ground” is a good one, along with its cousin, “He don’t know shit from Shinola.” (Kids! Google that one!)
*My hearts pumps panther piss *-- sorta our version of ‘I’ll play the world’s tiniest violin for you’
*Road lizard *-- a truckstop hooker, or someone you’re likening to a truckstop hooker.
*Marked *-- When others might say your child is a ‘chip off the old block’, we say you’ve ‘marked’ him or her; in other words, that child is undoubtably yours.
Love that one! We used to say that one all the time. “He don’t know shit from shinola!” Forgot all about it…
For us, it was "Your eyesight is bigger than your appetite.
Don’t know if a regionalism but if you got to nosy about grown-folk bidness, asking them where they’re going, they liable to tell you “I’m going to a duck take a drink of water.”
Oh, yeah, I forgot about that one.
This is so true, I guess, no matter what community you come from. I asked my sister about the jook stuff last night and she said I remembered it right good, and filled me in on the ones they used to have down 'bout Sardis.
**IaMoDiNaRy ** you reminded me of this one: “I was born at night, but it wasn’t last night”.
I saw a variant of this one upthread, but if my dad held someone in contempt, he would express it thusly:
“I wouldn’t piss on the son-of-a-bitch if he was on fire.”
Actually my mom used to say that and she was born in Texas. I frequently say things like that because they’re humorous to hear; not because I really talk that way; I suspect my mother said them for the same reason. She was anything but some backwoods texas redneck who went around saying thinks like “Whheeee Doggies!, slap my hiney and cover it with honey!”