Milsurp After Hours

Here in TEXAS we have our own form of language.

"Dumber than a box of rocks."

"Deaf as a fence post"

"Tougher than wang leather"

" Usless as teats on a boar hog"

A "rawhider" was a person who would only do the simplest needed repairs on the ranch. Like rawhide they would give out in wet weather!

A new hire cowboy, who has not shown the "head wrangler" enough knowledge of his work, got to "ride drag". He would be behind the cattle and in all of the dust raised by the herd, keeping a look out for stragglers.

Oneshooter

Livin in Texas

Down here we use "Deaf as a fence post" so that's one thing we have in common as well as "Bigger than Texas" but being in fact bigger than Texas it doesn't have quite the same meaning.

"Useless as the teats on a bull" and.

"Tougher than old hide" are local expression that are close to yours as well.

We have some expressions here as well, namely:

AWA - Africa Wins Again. This is when things go unexpectedly wrong.

TIA - This is Africa. Similar to such is life

In a rather quaint town in Northumberland they say NFB - Normal for Berwick.

As ugly as a box of frogs / face like a bag of spanners.

As useful as an ashtray on a motorbike.

As much use as a chocolate fireguard.

Easier to: Juggle soot / plat fog / nail jelly to a ceiling / compress mercury.

Tries hard, fails miserably - destined to go through like pushing doors marked 'PULL'.

" I would hesitate to breed from this Officer "!

"" I would hesitate to breed from this Officer "!

Back in 1955 while doing a short stint as Battalion Orderlyroom Clerk (square peg etc., ) I acually saw the above scrawled, in pencil, by the Adjutant on a file that he gave me to take in to the Colonel.

I grew up in the state of Maine on the North-east coast of the US where I was exposed to the local vernacular before I left to join the Marines (which has their own dialect of english all its own).

"Wicked good beah you got heah!" - Damn good beer you got here

"Wettah than a lobstah's aahs" - Its raining pretty bad out there that even a lobster wouldn't like it

"Coldah than a weetch's teet" - As we all know women of witchly persuasion aren't known for breast-feeding.

The h's reflect that the folks back home drop their Rs and pronounce the words with h's instead. Quite a change when you travel south of the Mason-Dixon Line into Georgia where I currently live.

Almost like a Scotsman or Welshman speaking Gaelic to someone from Kent...

Bruce

Well said cptbdrake. Welcome to the forums. I can picture how that real "yankee" way of talking was from the way you wrote it. Wish I was good at spelling things the way they are spoken.

Down south we have different ways of saying things depending on where we come from in the south. Down in Mobile we say things like. "wrench" for rinse and "Gaurrrd" for God and "lieberry" for library and assorted other things.

Almost as bad as when Mainers from Down East say "Schwet G-saaaas!" You can pickup the diety pretty easy from the phonetics but if you heard it live - wow.

I married a woman from Indiana. Her family has told me that Mid-Westerners don't have accents...Its the people who are from away that have them! She could never understand my father or mother on the phone. She did ok in face to face but the slow drawl and clipped Rs and substituted Hs throws her. She says I don't have the same accent. I told her I've been away for 20 years and I listened to a lot of BBC from the Canadian side of the border while I was growing up.

I've served and worked with the French, Germans, Canadians, Brits, Kiwis and Aussies in my time in the services, I can always seem to understand them pretty well. It is Spanish that I have an extreme difficulty picking up. Can't fathom it at all why. Half my soldiers speak it on a regular basis in the Army. I can just get by with the basics.

First couple of posts on the forum. I know Dromia from a Cast bullet forum we are both on and he has this forum linked in. I love shooting and collecting old military firearms and Enfields and Arisakas are my sentimental favorites although Mausers slip in their pretty regularly.

Bruce
P.S. how do we get a Welsh flag in the smilies section? I have a Scottish Matrilineal line but a Welsh Patrilineal line is my pride and joy. Both for my small stature as well as my wonderful singing voice (well in my opinion. My wife and kids vote otherwise)

Mid-Westerners don't have accents...Its the people who are from away that have them!

That's very similar to the Australian point of view. Everyone else has accents but not us.

I've got a similar problem to your wife. The father-in-law is no problem (he's English) but the more excited the mother-in-law gets the less understandable she is (Irish).

We get a variety of overseas people where I work (pommies, scots, welsh, irish, kiwis, South Africans, asians, Indians). Not had too much trouble although I did learn saying "So you're English then ?" to a Welshman is not a good move.

PS Welcome to the forums.