Tuesday, April 20, 2010

A Little Auslish and Alabama Coons

Bit of a dog's breakfast tonight. Some of you were a little bewildered by the Auslish in the previous post so an explanation of a couple of terms:

A 'Ute' (no nothing to do with indigenous Americans) is an Australian pick up truck only instead of being large, it's as if someone has cut away the back seat and the boot (er trunk) of a normal sedan and left it open. This is the vehicle preferred by a number of farmer's and tradesmen and is in fact a "Utility" vehicle . . hence now a "Ute". The 'tarp' is the covering for the back, now usually synthetic but once just a plain tarpaulin cover held in place with rope.

To "Pay someone out" is to give them a hard time. Stir them up . . .

The "Irish Mitts" is a phrase my father used to use. He and I both have 'square' hands. He used to refer to them as Irish Mitts, worker's hands. Nobody else in my family has hands like it with square palms and squatty fingers.

The "Crows" are the Adelaide Crows, an Australian Rules Football Team and the "Victor" is a lawnmower, (actually it's a 'Victa', shows you how often I mow a lawn!) an iconic brand of it's kind and again an early invention and institution for the 50's suburban man.

Yakka is a brand of workwear. Blue singlets, overalls, dungarees and hard wearing shorts and trousers . . it's become a part of the vernacular much the same way 'Hoover' has when we refer to a vacuum cleaner. Hard Yakka .. was and still is their slogan so a day of hard yakka is a day of hard physical labour.

A "Schooner" is our version of a pint. A large glass for beer. A size down is a Midi although in many pubs these days you can buy the old fashioned English 'pint'.
So nyah! Just as well I'm not writing for the world. Nobody would understand a word of it!

Now for something completely different . . . .

Way back in 2008 I wrote a post about a couple of Lullabies that my Grandma used to sing to her son, then my father sang them to us and we sang them to our own children. I often wondered how a Northern English, working class baker's wife even learned such a song which seemed to have it's roots in the deep South of America.

Out of the blue, as sometimes happens, I had a comment last week on that very post. An unknown commenter who gave me a link to a delightful You Tube clip of her wonderful elderly mother actually singing one of these old lullabies whilst being filmed by her Grandson.

Isn't the internet wonderful, some stranger, 12,000 miles away who just happened on a post from 2 years ago, had the same song sung to her as I did as a little girl in
and gave me the heads up on some of the lyrics that I'd long forgotten. Then four generations later and we're still singing about Momma's Alabama Coon . . only now we do it in suburban Australia to our own children . . takes six degrees of separation even further, through four generations and across three continents.

Awesome.




23 comments:

Brian Miller said...

how cool about the vid...personally i love the auslish...one of these days i will get down under...

Louise Bowers said...

My father used to sing 'My old man's a dustman'. But then he probably was.

Subby said...

Cool!

And I thought a "UTE" was something Joe Pechi said in "My Cousin Vinnie"...er...

Mrsupole said...

See I would have thought a Ute was one of the Native American Indian Tribes that we have in the Southwest. I never would have thought it was a Utility truck.

Really cool video and wish I had some of my grandparents. My mom does not talk enough about her childhood, as for that matter neither do I or hubby. We should though. I have asked my mom if she would be willing to do a video, and she looks at me like I am crazy.

I was here the other day trying to see the video with the ladies needing to tidy up, but could not get it to work and have been spending the time since trying to get my volume to work. Finally got it to work, and have to say that was pretty funny, and I do like the Coin Operated Boy toy. I wish I had one of those too and then one to clean my house and one to do the yard work. Heck I wish I had about 5 of them. So who made up the rule that women could only have one husband? Hmmmm, we need to do something about that one.

God bless.

Kate Hanley said...

I love the Auslish! I picked some up from friends from down under (and my husband has spent some time there as well). Great video also. I love it when connections are made like that. When I first moved to Philly, I ran into so many people I had worked with or gone to school with years and years earlier, it was eerie!

laughingwolf said...

figgered most of the terms on my own, but then, i'm a canuck! ;) lol

Kathy G said...

Thanks for the translations.

Roy said...

I knew about "ute" and a lot of the other words; there used to be a lot of Aussies here in Newport when the America's Cup was raced here, and I used to hang out with a bunch of them. "Yakka" was a new one on me, though.

Yeah, the Internet is certainly a place to make interesting connections; I hooked up with my old high school graduating class on the old Yahoo Groups (via Classmates.com) back around 2001, and now we're all on Facebook. We're scattered all over the US, so it would've been unlikely for many of us to reconnect without the Internet. Plus some of my family still living in Germany (my great-grandparents came to the US in the 1880s) have made contact, too. It's getting to be a really small world!

Janice said...

Six degrees of separation, for sure. That is quite a story and video.

tori said...

thanks for all the "translations"-interesting :)
lovely about the lullabies!

Tom said...

i understand most of what you write...there are an incredible amount of different accents and dialects in the states--but i love the english and aussies; we need another Baino recording.

Ronda Laveen said...

Your grandmother has (had) the most beautiful, lively eyes. What a treat to hear her sing this song. And the story about the people finding this post via the Net was fascinating. It was nice to get clarification on the Auslish, but I get pretty close on most of the connotations. I get ya, baby!

The Rev-Head

Megan said...

Shoot, I didn't read the last post yet so now I won't be able to take a guess at these any longer!

You know, I think I remember that post? Was I over here back then? I do believe I was! Now you've got me curious as to when I first came here. Paddy in BA is how I found you, I remember that.

I have a video of my gram telling some stories and I don't know if she sings on it, because I haven't yet been brave enough to watch it. What a find, that clip! You tube is amazing!

River said...

Square aplms and short fingers? Me too.

Paddy in BA (Quickroute) said...

As a newbie in OZ, I told someone I'd be rooting for them (supporting them)only to find out later the slang term 'to root' meant to shag - I love Auslish!

Baino said...

Haha we're expecting Mexicans at Christmas, we'll have a field day Brian!

No shame in that humble career path Lorna! Mine used to sing 'on Ilkley moor ba 'tat' never understood a word

Nup, not an injun either Subby

Sherry you should talk about your experiences to your kids and if they won't listen, tell the grandkids til their eyes glaze over!

Yeh it's a grand ting dis interwebicle

Yeh well you speak funny too Wuffa!

Glad to be of help. I forget how many colloquialisms we use in everyday life Kathy

Well Yakka's an Aussie brand name so I wouldn't expect you to have come across it Roy. Yep, I love Facebook too although I'm fussy who I 'friend'.

It is amazing how really connected we are Janice, despite the tyranny of distance.

No worries Tori, I'd need the same if I went to the US. buggered if I know what some of you lot are saying half the time.

Not my granny Revhead .. Kathleen's mum whoever she might be. She is sweet though isn't she.

That'll teach you Meg. Stay with the program now! Watch it. Bitter sweet I'm sure but I have a vid of my Grandad running on a beach, really rare thing for him to do because he was blind.

Good working stock River . . bet you've got wide child bearing hips to boot!

Haha Enda we also feel 'rooted' (tired) I don't think we've got much on your lot tho!

laughingwolf said...

i do so! ;) lol

Darlene said...

We do have our share of colloquialisms and don't understand each other half the time. Once I took a Massachusetts friend sightseeing and it was a scorching day. She asked the Ranger where the 'bubbla' (bubbler) was and he was befuddled. She wanted the water fountain, but this westerner didn't have a clue what she was asking for.

Loved the old lady singing lullabies because I'm an old lady myself. Maybe I should make a vieo. Ha ha !!

Mike said...

I get lost sometime on the lingo, I must admit.

The second part of this post is absolutely amazing! What a strange coincidence it took to hook up with this person.

nollyposh said...

(Ps) Although in my side of town it's called a "pot" of beer X;-) Btw loved the song... It always surprises me that i know heaps of olde ditty's (mainly old war tunes) from my long ago childhood and i can still hear in my minds eye my grandpa whistling 'em (He's in the Heavenly Places now) <3

nick said...

The connectivity of the internet and all that. You'll probably get an email tomorrow from the person who wrote the song, lol.

xxx said...

Awesome!

xx

kt said...

Do you know the origins of the song? Alabama coons were sweets (candy) in England.