Missouri-isms

[Jesda]

http://missourifolkloresociety.truman.e ... sions.html

Some of these idioms make sense, like "He was tall enough to stand flat-footed and screw a flying buzzard" or "Slow as molasses in January"

But saying "go piss up a rope" as a way of telling someone off is baffling.

These tend to be used in rural parts of the state while St Louis and Kansas City use Chicago dialects (by which I mean entirely plain spoken). Over time, they've quietly disappeared due to the influence of mass media. The Missouri accent, a harsher twang than what you might hear in Georgia or Texas, is fading as well.


Texans have noticed the same:
http://www.utexas.edu/know/2012/05/07/texas_twang/

[Razi]

That website looks like it's stuck in the 90s.

[jbracy7]

What gets me is when they say "really" a dozen f-ING times in a row

[frapjap]

Funny you put that up. I was just at home visiting friends and family with my yankee girlfriend. After an hour or so, I pick up my accent again and sometime later in the weekend she goes, "Do you guys not have time for G's? Everything is fishin'. huntin'. muddin'. fightin'. f***'." She also heard, "it was raining harder than a cow pissin' on a flat rock," and was quite amused.

[float_6969]

I do the same thing if I spend too much time with my Grandpa. He's spent most of his life within 5 miles of where he was born and raised here in NE Kansas. Hes' not as bad as some of the stuff on that site, but my wife has noticed that I start to go back to talking like that when I'm around him.

[SX APPEAL]

I think Missouri gets a lot of the credit for all "Midwest-isms" just because we're the center of the midwest, cause I've definitely heard a few of those sayings used in hollywood movies and such.

This is more what I was expecting when I clicked on this thread, and yes I checked, these are all true

You know you're from Missouri when:

1. You've never met any celebrities.

2. Everyone you know has been on a "Float Trip,"

3. "Vacation" means driving to Silver Dollar City, Worlds of Fun or Six Flags.

4. You've seen all the biggest bands ten years AFTER they were popular..

5. You measure distance in minutes rather than miles. For example, "Well, Webb City's only 20 minutes away." <-- OK, not really a "Missouri Only" thing

6. Down south to you means Arkansas.

7. The phrase "I'm going to the Lake this weekend"only means one thing.

8. You know several people who have hit a deer.

9. You think Missouri is spelled with an "ah" at the end.

10. Your school classes were canceled because of cold.

11. You know what "Party Cove" is.

12. Your school classes were canceled because of heat.

13. You instinctively ask some one you've just met, "What High School did you go to?" <-- Mostly an STL thing because of all the Private Catholic Schools

14. You've had to switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day.

15. You think ethanol makes your truck "run a lot better."

16. You know what's knee-high by the Fourth of July.

17. You see people wear bib overalls at funerals.

18. You see a car running in the parking lot at the store with no one in it, no matter what time of day.

19. You know in your heart that Mizzou can beat Nebraska in football.

20. You end your sentences with an unnecessary preposition. Example: "Where's my coat at?"

21. All the festivals across the state are named after a fruit, vegetable or grain.

22. You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked.

23. You think of the major four food groups as beef, pork, beer, and Jell-O salad with marshmallows.

24. You carry jumper cables in your car and know that everyone else should.

25. You went to skating parties as a kid.

26. You only own three spices: salt, pepper, and ketchup.

27. You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.

28. You think sexy lingerie is tube socks and a flannel nightie.

29. The local paper covers national and international headlines on one page, but requires six pages for sports.

30. You think I-44 is spelled and pronounced "farty-far." (St. Louis only.)

31. You'll pay for your kids to go to college unless they want to go to KU.

32. You think that "deer season" is a National Holiday.

33. You know that Concordia is halfway between Kansas City and Columbia, and Columbia is halfway between St. Louis and Kansas City, and the Warrenton Outlet Mall is halfway between Columbia and St. Louis.

34. You can't think of anything better than sitting on the porch in the middle of the summer during a thunderstorm.

35. You know which leaves make good toilet paper

36. You've said, "It's not the heat, it's the humidity."

37. You know all four seasons: Almost Summer, Summer, Still Summer and Football.

38. You know if another Missourian is from the Boot-heel, Ozarks, Eastern, Middle or Western Missouri soon as they open their mouth.

39. You know that Harry S. Truman, Walt Disney and Mark Twain are all from Missouri.

40. You failed World Geography in school because you thought Cuba, Versailles, California, Nevada, Houston, Cabool, Louisiana, Springfield, and Mexico were cities in Missouri. (And they are!)

41. You think a traffic jam is ten cars waiting to pass a tractor.

42. You know what "HOME OF THE THROWED ROLLS" means.

43. You actually get this and forward it to all your Missouri friends.