Owd Words

[jaybelnz]

What would our ancestors be making of all this new-fangled stuff like phones, mobiles, tellys, vacs, washing machines, i-pads and other items that have one letter, then three! --- etc etc.

Pennines, that makes me think of my grandmother's reaction to my dishwasher in the 1970's!

She was in her nineties, pretty switched on, and she and my Mum had come for lunch! My grandmother was always the first up to clear the table, and always washed the dishes.  When I showed her the dishwasher, which was under the bench, and had a timber front on it to match the cupboards etc, she was very puzzled as to how a cupboard could wash (and dry) dishes!  Just didn't understand it at all. 

When I took her back to her two sisters, she couldn't tell them quickly enough that I had a magic cupboard under the kitchen bench that washed and dried dishes!  My Magic Cupboard was examined carefully by her her each time she and Mum came, which was generally once a week! 

My dear old Nanny!  👍😄🌺

[Pennines]

That is hilarious Jaybeinz! A magic cupboard --- that's just wonderful. How posh are you though having a dishwasher in the 1970s!!

This thread has reminded me about words/sayings that I assume originated from people working in the cotton mills;

-- being 'stuck for bobbins' if you had nothing to do. (I still use that expression - but not everyone knows what I mean!)

--'mee-mowing' to each other (originating from workers in the mill speaking to each other without making a sound. The machines were too loud for workers to hear one another so they just 'mouthed' the words.)

I wonder who made up the word 'mee-mowing' in the first place. Someone must have used it first.

[Berlin-Bob]

In my local newspaper today (Lancashire Telegraph) - is a list of some old Lancashire words, with their definitions - under the headline of 'Ey up, how Lancashire are you?'

Use yer loaf -- Use your brain.

This one is actually cockney rhyming slang : loaf of bread =>> head

Bob

[rolnora]

In the 60s my late father ran a youth football team. At his first match one of the boys asked "wurz casey?" My father replied that no one of that name was playing. The boy laughed and said he meant the football they were to play with! Casey was  caseball, made of leather and heavy, in those days.
Kooky

"Casey" ouch,
Back in the early 60s a boy that lived in our street was lucky enough to have one. I remember being hit in the face with it when he and my brother were having a kick about, it brought tears to my eyes.
Didn't it have a bladder inside it that had to be pumped up. I seem to remember a bicycle pump being used ?

[jaybelnz]

  - it's the only one I ever had Pennines - this one went in when we were building!  Have moved several times since then, but have never had another one, worse luck!  Don't have many dishes to wash these days though, so never takes long!

I still call them Magic Cupboards though!   

[rolnora]

-- being 'stuck for bobbins' if you had nothing to do. (I still use that expression - but not everyone knows what I mean!)

--'mee-mowing' to each other (originating from workers in the mill speaking to each other without making a sound. The machines were too loud for workers to hear one another so they just 'mouthed' the words.)

I wonder who made up the word 'mee-mowing' in the first place. Someone must have used it first.

We use the word "bobbins" to mean the something is not very good or rubbish but not a clue were it originated from.

Never heard "mee-mowing" although I do know that the mill workers were brilliant lip readers.

[andrewalston]

I think that the Lancashire Evening Telegraph may have raided a copy of "A Blegburn Dickshonary", written by local journalist Joseph Baron.

If I remember correctly, I downloaded a copy from www.cottontown.org about a decade ago, but I can't find it there now.

Well worth a read if you can locate it.