Don't let your house catch on far!

[7milesout]

It's funny the things a person remembers. Me, being the ridiculous unserious person I am (watched way too many cartoons as a kid), was just blathering about "tars" in another thread. You know, rubber car tars.

Anywho - It jogged a memory in my head. A memory from when I was 7 years old. First grade. I remember this very distinctly ... at least this instant in time.

We had these weird open-air type classrooms for the 3 first grade classes we had. We could see over into the other rooms. We could hear them. They could hear us. To get to these rooms, you sorta had to walk through a built in stage type area. I forget what you call it. But it had roundish stairs and the part where a person talked was lower (at the bottom of the steps). Anywho - That's not all that important, just setting the stage. They'd give instructions or some such crap from time to time in this stage area. All the 1st graders would sit in this stage area on said built-in steps.

So that's what was going on. Probably 60 first graders sitting in this stage area, and they were giving a lesson on fire safety. What to do if your house caught on fire, etc etc etc, yada yada yada.

And they introduced this next guy as an expert that was going to give us details. He was the epitome of a redneck. He was probably about 35, big beer type belly, overly tight fireman's T-shirt, big beard. He looked like a character from Redneck Rampage. And the following is the funny part.

He steps out front and he says, "Now kids, if your house catches on far...."

And I swear to you, SIXTY 1st graders BUSTED out laughing at his "far" instead of "fire." Now, we're little redneck kids, and even his "far" was hilariously exaggerated. But not only did we kids start laughing at his "far" but our laughing escalated due to the fact that we all laughed at the same time! It was a totally spontaneous thing. I'm betting the lady teachers giggled (Mrs. Townsend, etc).

I remember it was probably the first (and maybe last) time I felt ... empathy? Whatever the feeling is where I felt embarrassed *for* someone else. This guy had to be humiliated, to have 60 little kids laughing at him all at once, right at the first sentence out of his mouth. And he couldn't get mad, we were just innocent kids. But laughing our guts out at him spontaneously! They had to intervene to get us to stop laughing so he could go on. That "far" was all the talk around the 1st grade classes for days. We even as little kids would ask each other, "has your house ever caught on far?"


7milesout

[Mark]

I blame anything I say incorrectly on my dad. He was born in Upper Michigan, and he spent his early childhood there before moving to Wisconsin. Even then, we were only about 15 miles from the Michigan border when I was growing up there. Yoopers have their own way of saying things, but someone like myself may not notice it as much.

"Yoopers use "pop" for a carbonated beverage. "Soda" is either seltzer, club soda, or effervescent tonic water. They also use "ant" instead of "aunt." Common Finnish words are often used in conversation even if the communicants are not of Finnish descent."

Even though I consider myself an educated redneck, I would probably fit in with the "Da Turdy Point Buck" crowd, which many Wisconsinites gladly embrace! I will include the song below, & a few seconds into it will enlighten anyone not familiar with the UP & Yoopers. It's played every year before deer season in my area (SW WI).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZOC1QXTQLk

I took a friend to my parents a number of years ago, and she got a kick out of my dad. For example, my dad calls pancakes "panny cakes", & I suppose it sounds funny to hear a grown man say that. I never thought anything about it until my friend started to chuckle over it. Now, I find myself rolling my eyes every time my dad says it. I'm sure I heard panny cakes my entire life, but never thought anything about it before that.

I was just up there visiting my parents over Easter. We cut some down trees on Saturday morning. When we got back up to the house we had some blueberry panny cakes for lunch. They were yummy!

Changing the subject to weather - I just found out my parents are going their 3rd day without electricity. Heavy snow snapped power lines & poles in NE Wisconsin. It's a mess. My brother lives 7 miles from them, & he had a hard time reaching them because many roads are closed because of the downed lines. Thankfully, my parents have a large portable generator they can run off their tractor's PTO. That gives them some electricity during the day.

[Fummins]

I call pop, pop. Never used the term soda. Say ant instead of Aunt but, spell still them correctly.

My one Grandpa used to refer to vehicles as bazoo's or jalopy regardless of what it was lol. The motorhome was a motorhouse. House was a shack. The list was endless.

We always laugh anytime my mom says Creek, she calls it a "crick". Same with limo, it comes out "lemo". Maybe it's a Northern Alberta thing? A lot of my family up there does the same thing.

The one that always gets me is how Roof is pronounced differently between US-ruff and Canada-roof(or at least western), not sure about other countries? Am I on crack again, or is that a thing?

[7milesout]

My brother lives 7 miles from them...

I've mentioned before how you and I may be brothers. And your brother seems to live "7 miles out" from your parents. Makes a person think...

[CROSSBOLT]

I worked for Warner Electric for several years in the 80's. My regional manager, the guy who hired me was from "Bahstin" Mass. "Pahk the cah in the Haavid Yahd" nor'easter kind of a suit. Nice guy, fair sense of humor. He had severe troubles understanding the strange southern dialect. I was not that far ahead of him and STILL have troubles from time to time!

Bought him a book and presented it to him during a national meeting we had in Atlanta, Gawja one year. The title was "How to speak Southern." Was a riot! One of the featured words was "far." 'Course another was "tar!" The surprise was "Y'all better put some all in thet engine or it gonna lock up!"

Small book. Maybe a thousand words. Thet prolly 500 too many fer most conversations down here!