FAMILIAR SAYINGS

By Caroline Clemmons

Do you ever wonder where some of the little rhymes about life originated? This is the sort of thought that pops into my head when I’m trying to go to sleep at night. Yeah, it’s annoying. 

Sure, this is how I look.

Here are some of those I recall:

"Red sky at night, sailor’s delight.

Red sky at morning, sailor take warning." 

Although she knew nothing about sailing, my mother-in-law used that saying to predict storms.

 

There is so much good in the worst of us

and so much bad in the best of us,

that it should remind all of us,

not to criticize the rest of us.

 

Another one my mother-in-law must have heard. In all the time I knew her (since I was 12) I only heard her criticize someone once, and come close to criticizing three other times. 

"Red and black, friend of Jack.

Red and yellow, kill a fellow."

We had to learn this in Girl Scouts, even though I never heard of a coral snake in West Texas. However, this is important to remember if you live where there are coral snakes! Though rare in the Dallas-Fort Worth area (favoring farther east), they’re here—and have red and yellow bands touching. The scarlet king snake, red rat snake, and others have red and black bands touching. 

Coral Snake
 

"If you can’t fight, flee

If you can’t flee,

Go with the flow."

 

When Hero was having too much stress at work, our youngest daughter made him a little sign of this and told him to flow. He thanked her and told her it wasn't at home he needed the sign, but at work. She made him another sign.

"Early to bed and early to rise

Makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise."

Now, wait a minute! Hero has followed this lifestyle when working conditions permitted. He is the most intelligent person I've ever met, but he is neither healthy nor wealthy. What's wrong with this picture?

George Bernard Shaw is credited with this saying, which I've heard many times:

"We don't stop playing because we grow old.

We grow old because we stop playing."

Benjamin Franklin said, "Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days."

Fishing photo by Tom Fisk

"Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day.

Teach a man to fish, and he'll eat for a lifetime." Lao Tzu

What are some sayings you've hears?

If you're hankering for a great sweet historical western romance to read, let me entice you to get the first two of my new Texas Hill Country Mail Order Brides Series. 

Book 1 is GENTRY AND THE MAIL ORDER BRIDE. Gentry's late partner willed his mail order bride to Gentry.

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Book 2 is JESSE AND THE MAIL ORDER BRIDE. Rosalin Arnold risks a daring escape from evil by becoming a mail order bride to a Texas sheriff.

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Stay safe and keep reading!