mommafitz Posted January 25, 2009 Share Posted January 25, 2009 Mornin' Ya'll! I got up to a beautiful sunny day !!!!! Two days of weekend sunshine hasn't been seen 'round these parts in a coons age!! Bright sunshine does a lot for a fellas disposition, don't you agree?! DH killed a wild hog a couple of days ago. It has been in the extra fridge just chillin and today we will process it and put it in the freezer. Good eatin'! Since it's my birthday today, I'm gonna work in some "me" time. I'm gonna read and work on my needlepoint since I didn't get to yesterday. This weeks weather forecast calls for low 40's for the temps and rain chances on Tues and Wed. Not too bad compared to our snow and ice last week. Ya'll have a fantabulous day!!!!!! mommafitz Link to comment
JCK88 Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 >>Two days of weekend sunshine hasn't been seen 'round these parts in a coons age!!>> Uh..I love ya MommaFitz but this little saying is a racist thing in our day and age.....You might want to erase it from your vocabulary because although in 1843 it was thought to mean a long-lived raccoon or the expression was sometimes said as "a crow's age" , today the word "coon" is considered racially pejorative in some communities, including African-Americans in the United States. Please don't be upset I mentioned this publicly. I honestly didn't realize it myself until about 22 years ago--till then I thought it meant raccoon and had never heard the slang expression used in a racial context. (because until then, I was living a pretty sheltered life) I said it to a newspaper reporter pal in Fredericksburg, Va. "Haven't seen you in a coon's age!" and he was horrified. I had to ask why. Really. LOL. Link to comment
serendipity Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 mommafitz, I hope you had a ~wonderful~ birthday today!!!! And how nice that the sun was shining on your special day! It must have been just for you! (((hugs)) Link to comment
Granny Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 Happy Birthday Mommafitz!! Hope you’re having fantabulous day. I’ve never had wild hog but imagine it would be tasty and similar to tame ones? Link to comment
Stephanie Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 First and foremost!!! Happy Birthday Mommafitz!!! As to the 'coon's age' saying, I thought I knew all the racial slurs seeing as I'm from the deep south...but this was a new one to me. I actually googled it, http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1...in-of-coons-age All I can say is "I swanee!" And I hope that doesn't mean something I don't realize ... I think I'll go google it! Link to comment
MomM Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 Happy Birthday Mommafitz! Hope you had a very relaxing day! Link to comment
JCK88 Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 Oooops..Momma Fitz...I stopped reading when I saw the raccoon and I have been extremely remiss in not wishing you a Happy Birthday, too..so belatedly....Hope it was a great one! (well except me and my big mouth, I mean, LOL) Link to comment
Homemaker Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 Thanks for warning us all about the coon saying JCK88. I would be mortified if I insulted someone, even unawares. My mom would always tell me to get my "cotton pickin hands" off of whatever I was messing with. I never thought about it until about three years ago when it dawned on me that it was a racist and hurtful saying. Fortunately I never used it in my vocabulary because it never made sense to me. Link to comment
JCK88 Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 Well I'm not into the political correctness as a rule...that raccoon thing just stuck out at me cause I was guilty of it--but I have to say that in New England, it always meant raccoon and not the other. It was when I lived in Virginia that I had this education about what is proper or not. Believe me, being a Yankee in the midst of Civil War battlefields is NOT an easy thing, LOL Oh...Stephanie, the I swanee thing simply means "I swear" as in "I swear, I haven't seen that boy in ages...." nothing bad. I looked it up and was going to post an interesting explanation I found when suddenly my computer would only type K's over and over all by itself. Thinking I had contracted some virus from the KKK, I frantically ran a scan, finding nothing until I had the brainstorm to check the K key and realize there was some kind of cookie crumb in there jamming it up, LOL LOL Freaked me out. Anyway...HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMAFITZ didn't mean to throw the impromptu web dictionary party here:) Link to comment
JCK88 Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 Well I'm not into the political correctness as a rule...that raccoon thing just stuck out at me cause I was guilty of it--but I have to say that in New England, it always meant raccoon and not the other. It was when I lived in Virginia that I had this education about what is proper or not. Believe me, being a Yankee in the midst of Civil War battlefields is NOT an easy thing, LOL Oh...Stephanie, the I swanee thing simply means "I swear" as in "I swear, I haven't seen that boy in ages...." nothing bad. I looked it up and was going to post an interesting explanation I found when suddenly my computer would only type K's over and over all by itself. Thinking I had contracted some virus from the KKK, I frantically ran a scan, finding nothing until I had the brainstorm to check the K key and realize there was some kind of cookie crumb in there jamming it up, LOL LOL Freaked me out. Anyway...HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMAFITZ didn't mean to throw the impromptu web dictionary party here:) Link to comment
mommafitz Posted January 26, 2009 Author Share Posted January 26, 2009 Oh Dear!!!!! Since I am not racist and don't think in racist terms, I honestly thought it referred to the animal. I'm mortified! I'm sorry if I offended anyone. (I sure hope mortified isn't offensive to anyone! ) mommafitz, a southerner thru-and -thru Link to comment
Stephanie Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 Mommafitz, I'm a Southern Belle Thru and Thru with seven adopted black children, I certainly wasn't offended. I honestly had never thought about the saying and then the 'cotton picking hands'. Of course, lots of white folks picked cotton too in the south. I wonder what mortified means....sounds kind of related to morticians. I like studying words, we do it a lot in our home schooling. Hope you had a great day!! ((((mommafitz))) Link to comment
DenimDaze Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 Wow! I never knew that one either. I just assumed racoons lived a long time! I never understood Political Correctness until the past year or so when I realized it was basically an attempt to try to legislate manners onto the intolerant. Like everything else it seems to go too far too easily - but from what I've heard on Talk Radio and various forums, it is a necesary evil. Link to comment
Homemaker Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 Maybe somebody should write a book about all of the possible offensive sayings and words so we can purge them from our vocabulary. I certainly would read it. I don't have time to write it myself, but if someone here does... go for it. Just send me a free copy. Link to comment
Homemaker Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 Maybe somebody should write a book about all of the possible offensive sayings and words so we can purge them from our vocabulary. I certainly would read it. I don't have time to write it myself, but if someone here does... go for it. Just send me a free copy. Link to comment
ScrubbieLady Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 Originally Posted By: DenimDaze I never understood Political Correctness until the past year or so when I realized it was basically an attempt to try to legislate manners onto the intolerant. Like everything else it seems to go too far too easily - but from what I've heard on Talk Radio and various forums, it is a necesary evil. Well, I was raised in South Texas and never heard that "cotton picking hands" was racist since my grandmother was raised by a sharecropper and picked cotton as a youth(she also broke horses but that is another story). As to "Political Correctness", no, IMO it is an attempt to control people. It seems to be used to put people down who do not toe the line of what someone else thinks. Else, a comment that was wrong would be wrong no matter who spoke it and we all must know that that is not always the case. I am a blond and do not get insulted by blonde jokes. I have friends who are Polish and did not get insulated by pollock(sp?) jokes and I have friends who are Aggies (Texas A&M) and they know the best Aggie jokes and are not insulted by them. I try my best to not knowingly offend someone but sometimes political correctness runs amuck. DISCLAIMER: I am not talking about anyone this board just saying what I think. I have very seldom heard the term "coon's age". It is not something I grew up with or used. Link to comment
blestmomof4 Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 I must really have my head in the sand for years. When some one say 'coon' I think of a racoon or a cajun neighbor who is nicknamed Cooney. He nicknamed himself so I am sure he isn't offended by it. As far as 'cotton picking hands'- it reminds me of my mom and her siblings who were in the cotton fields even as toddlers helping my grandmother who was widowed not long after my mom was born. My mom was very small and her older siblings would hand her a bucket in the fields sit her down in one area and she would pick all that was within her reach. They then would pick her up and move her to another area. It was a time when all the kids pitched in no matter how small, they knew what work was and what 'family' meant, and they all appreciated everything so much more. Blessings, bb Link to comment
JCK88 Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 I wasn't offended either....and I have an African-American adopted daughter...just didn't want you to be embarrassed like I was when I said it out loud in a crowd in all innocence. Also, I figured if I hadn't known it was not okay to say....someone else might not. I hope my bringing it up at all didn't offend anyone, either. Link to comment
JCK88 Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 I don't think this coons age thing is political correctness run amok. I think people have a right to say whatever they want. I just sometimes think many of us are surprised to learn that we said isn't what others hear. In short, I wasn't trying to control anyone just trying to clarify what some others may interpret it as. Since most of us here aren't racist, we don't want to unknowingly use something racist. that's all. So....taping duct tape over mouth....er...rather on keyboard. Carry on. Oh..sorry. I can't help it. Check this out: http://www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/coon/ Link to comment
Stephanie Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 (((Judy))) I certainly wasn't offended by this tidbit of word history. I learned something that I didn't know before. It made me think about a lot of old sayings that I use. Good Heavens to Betsy (what in the world does that mean? ) There's more than one way to skin a cat! (eewwww) Link to comment
blestmomof4 Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 JCK88, No duct tape is needed. I would have never known that some maybe offended or hurt by a phrase that reminds be of a 'better' time. I have never heard about the 'cotton picking' possibly offending someone so it's good to know. Now I will more mindful of others feelings. Thanks and Blessings, bb Link to comment
Homebody Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 JCK88, Glad you brought it up. I've never even thought "coons age" would offend anyone or heard anyone using it in that manner or "cotton pickin" either for that matter. It's not something I use but will make me think more about what I say. Link to comment
Louis1 Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 Whatever. In benighted Mississippi, the term "coon's age" is used by BLACK and WHITE from all social and economic classes to mean "For a long time." I use it. I will continue to use it. People who insist on living in the United States of the Offended need to get over it. It probably won't happen for a coon's age though. Link to comment
mommafitz Posted January 27, 2009 Author Share Posted January 27, 2009 Hey, Lous1........ Cool................ mommafitz Link to comment
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