Words and phrases that remind you of your parents?

[Plinketyplonks]

My late dad was a great one for being organised and filing things and labelling them correctly. He always had a box file labelled ‘sundries’, I rarely come across that word now but if I do it instantly makes me think of my lovely dad.

He also used ‘for Pete’s sake,’ ‘a pad’ (meaning a flat) and ‘digs’ (meaning university accommodation). Don’t often hear these now but they always remind me of him.

My mum always uses the phrase ‘took off like a Polaris missile’ when describing something taking off vertically (like a cat when you accidentally step on its tail). Polaris missiles were around in the 60s so I suppose that’s her reference. I never hear anyone say that

I use all of your dad’s sayings, and I’d say ‘like a rat up an aqueduct’ for your mum’s saying.
Shrapnel for loose change I don’t hear any more, but I use it.
And a funny thing happened yesterday in the supermarket. If I’m rifling through store cards or bank cards I’d say ‘pick a card, any card’ but no one else gets it ( it’s something a magician would say) . Then yesterday the cashier said it to me, and I was shocked as I’ve never heard anyone else say it.

Oh I def know ‘pick a card, any card!’ I like the rat one, not heard that before. Funny how hearing certain sayings reminds you of people. I think my dad had a file labelled sundries all his life.

"Five and twenty past" for twenty-five minutes past [whatever] o'clock.

"I could shoot you without a gun" - heard a lot from my mum when I was growing up.

"Gee whiskers" - an exclamation I've never heard from anyone else apart from my godmother.

I say “pick a card any card” but I’ve adapted it for roads when drivers are dithering over the lanes, so it’s “pick a lane any lane!”

If my mum was going out and we asked where she’d say “to see a man about a dog”.

Were you born in a barn? (When leaving a door open)
It’s like Blackpool illuminations in here (too many lights on)
Not heard much these days, but my sis is morphing into my mum so it’s only a matter of time

Ah, yes, @MissyB1 " to see a man about a dog". I use this, to insert a bit of mystery about one's purpose...I associate it with the East End of London, where I was brought up, in 60s and 70s...and also Mike Leigh films. I feel very affectionately towards the phrase.

You’re neither use nor ornament 🤣

I come across ‘sundries’ a lot when bookkeeping! It’s a category on my bookkeeping software

Oh so many & not all of them nice! I remember DM saying “ I’ll knock you into the middle of next week”!

Every time I'm driving in snow I hear my dad's voice "high gear, low revs" and "turn into the skid".

Being surprised - "well I'll go to the foot of our stairs!" Always amused me when DGM said that one as she lived in a bungalow

My dad is not a swearer so we’d hear lots of “My Word” or “Blimey O’Riley”. Not sure if the last one is PC these days

"That needs some elbow grease" about anything grubby that needed a polish.

"As soft as butter"

"It's coming down in sheets"

"If there's enough blue sky to sew a pair of sailor's trousers, the washing will dry".

"Fur coat and no knickers"

All grannie.

Many of the above.

That’s reminded me my dad said the ‘to see a man about a dog one’, generally if he was going to the loo and we asked him where he was go.

I’ve remembered another my dad said when he was heading for a post lunch zizz, ‘time for my post-prandial.’ Never really hear people use post prandial.

if he was asked how he was it was always ‘A1 at Lloyds’ or ‘A-ok’

This reminds me of my gran ❤️

My dad used to say ‘five and twenty past’ too.

A phrase I’ve not heard elsewhere was ‘and thereby hangs a tale (tail?)’ I think meaning that there was a longer story on a subject somewhere.

Calling me a ‘daft a’peth’ (which apparently means a half-penny worth but I thought was a baby ape)

My mum used the saying about ‘enough blue sky to make a pair of sailors trousers’ and ‘fine before 7, rain before 11’ , both of which my grandmother used too.

My Mum used to say you look “like the wreck of the Hesperus”! There was a poem of that name from 1842 - I often wonder how many generations that one passed down! Nearly 200 years of hyper-critical relatives! 😂

"A load of bull" which my parents said to me and I only realised the context as I got older.

"I want never gets!" - my Grandma used to say this to my Mum and my Mum used to say it to me. Same with "Look with your eyes, not your hands!" when we picked things up in shops.

"Are you blind?" - my Mum says this if I don't appear to notice something obvious straight away.

"It's like Blackpool Illuminations in here!" - my Grandad always used to say this.

I heard that from a school friends parent and went through a phase of saying it when I was at primary school, but I thought it was “daft dapeth” and I assumed a dapeth was some sort of large cat - like a panther or a leopard and I have no idea why

If the sky was becoming overcast my nan used to say "It's getting black over Bill's mother's" .

Not a clue who Bill or his mother were .

If you asked what there was to eat the reply was often "shit with sugar on it" .

The term "buggerlugs" was used affectionately .

I love reading these archaic and bizarre expressions .

My dad used to say 'you'd make a better door than a window' if he couldn't see because people were in his way. I say it to my cat when he sits on my keyboard.

If my DM had an opinion on something and didn't want to discuss it anymore she would say 'That's it and all about it'. I still don't know what it means!

'What the Hanover.....' (Dad)
I think it probably had come down from someone older in the family, in the days when even saying the word 'hell' was a bit naughty.

Phrase that I say to myself sometimes -'For goodness sake, child, why are you keeping that little bit of cotton. It's too short for anything. THROW it away.' (Mum)

Old friend, old enough to be my mother, - That's a fart-catching article, isn't it?

Missed friend - 'All part of life's rich pageant.'

My dad used to say “put the light on, see what you’re doing of”
Nan and other old Cockneys would say “five and twenty up” if the time was say, 11.35
”I’ll just get me titfer” (hat)

My dad used to say 'I'll go to the foot of our stairs'. He also said 'Get on with your knitting' when my mum was being particularly annoying (sexist, dad!) and 'This won't get the baby a new bonnet' if time was being wasted when something needed doing.

My mum liked saying 'Ladling and teeming', a Sheffield steel industry term for transferring molten steel between vessels. She used it when my brother was making a mess with drinks. She said 'Red sky at night, shepherds' delight' and 'Cast not a clout 'till May is out'. By the time I was 16, I used to recite 'Hurray, hurray, the first of May, outdoor sex begins today' silently to myself when she said it each year.

As teenagers, my brother and I both loved mum coming into the sitting room when we were watching TV and saying 'Come on children, let's be having it off'. She meant 'Turn off the telly. It's time for bed.' Our sniggering never provoked a reaction from her. Perhaps she didn't understand what she had said.