Now I imagine you are wondering what made me use that as a heading. After I had written about our Carnarvon holiday I was thinking back on it and I remembered something that happened while there.
The four of us (MOH, our two children and me) were sitting having morning tea or some such in our tent and listening to the radio. It was tuned to the ABC and there was a children's programme on that had us quite intrigued as it was quite funny. There was this lady presenter talking to who was obviously an adult male, but he was pretending to be a child.
I don't even remember exactly what it was all about but he was obviously having problems with some task he'd been set and he suddenly said "Oh, it's hard being an elephant, Mrs Ward!". He sounded quite exasperated.
For some reason this struck us all as being just so funny and even to this day it has become an expression we still use to each other in times of difficulty. A real family phrase that we had picked up over 40 years ago.
Have you ever experienced something similar that has become part of your or your family's life?
Family phrases are wonderful. We adopted this phrase from someone else's family. A colleague was talking about the country drive they had taken their children on over the weekend. They had passed a cattle truck - going to the abbattoir. Her youngest daughter had said 'look mummy, that nice man is taking his cows for a drive...' Which is something we still say ourselves.
ReplyDeleteThank you for that EC. I always feel stressed when I see trucks with sheep or cattle heading towards Fremantle harbour to be put on those beastly ships. I'll try and remember that phrase of yours and perhaps feel a tad better in future.
ReplyDeleteHope your and the SP's day has been reasonable and you feel you are at last perhaps getting to the end of this trying time.
yes, something similar. First you need to know that my older sister is retarded. anyway, one day she mentioned her dinner was too hot to eat and Dad said pick it up and walk around the block with it, it will be cool enough when you get home. She picked up her plate and headed to the door, of course Mum stopped her and explained Dad was joking. Years later, I told my kids and for months every time dinner was a bit hot, like straight from the oven, one would say "my dinner is too hot" and they would all pick up their plates and walk outside, around the yard, then come back and eat. We thought it was hilarious. It stopped of its own accord when winter really set in.
ReplyDeleteRiver thank you so much for your story. It truly was hilarious. I can vaguely remember something of the kind being said in the dim distant past. I can just see your children taking their too hot meals for a walk. lol
DeleteHow delightful and what a great phrase to adopt. The only thing I can put my mind around right now is a phrase my family used when I was a child. "Hello, I haven't seen you in a donkey's age" or "Well I haven't seen anything like this in a donkey's age", donkey's age meaning in a very, very, very long time.
ReplyDeleteLoads of fun and I can't believe we still say it after all these years.
DeleteYou made me remember that phrase you quoted. I had totally forgotten it but ours was a tad different. For some reason we said "for donkey's ages". Does that make a difference? Not really but it was definitely 'ages".
Don't you just love some of the expressions people use and you wonder where they came from originally.
A cute expression indeed....nothing comes to mind right now other than sayings I've already posted over time.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you could add the elephant phrase in future. Just a suggestion.
DeleteWhen I was a little girl, I loved silly jokes. (You'd NEVER guess that by reading my blog, right?) Anyhow, one of my favorites asked, "What would you rather have chase you, an elephant or a gorilla?" The answer was, "I'd rather have the elephant chase the gorilla." To this day, whenever faced with two crummy choices, that's what my hubby and I say.
ReplyDeleteI love it. Thanks for sharing. You, enjoy silly jokes?? No, never. lol : )
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