Susie's not gonna be foe no moe

Once Upon a Time, when I was a wee sprout about to turn five, I was asked how old I'd be on my birthday. Family history has it that I looked the questioner in the eye and said, "Well, I ain't gonna be foe no moe." So of course my fam has beat that to death over the years by bringing it up anytime I was about to turn 24, 34, 44, 54. I'm pretty sure I'll go to my grave with that bit of family lore attached to me. I can hear them now: Hmmm, guess she really isn't gonna be ninety-foe no moe.

<-- born a blonde

I imagine every family probably has sayings that make no sense to anyone else, but tickle those involved. Or perhaps in your family, as in mine, they just won't let it die no matter how pretty you beg.


I don't remember exactly how old I was the year I got a cunning pair of blue flip flops with tinsel-shiny straps. I do remember we were calling them zorries that summer, that I loved mine to pieces, and had probably only had them a week the day we went over to Pleasant Harbor in my dad's old Hollywood, a 17 foot wooden boat we used to water ski behind. My cousin Colleen and I were messing around on a long, narrow dock 10 or so feet above the water when I managed to knock off one of the sandals. It fell into the water below and I flipped out in the way only pubescent girls can do. My brother Ron, who's 3 years older than I, said he'd get it for me--probably just to shut me up. He was wading from the shore out to where it floated fifteen feet away, when we saw that he was headed for an abrupt and very steep drop off. Being a know-it-all-teenage boy, however, he blew us off when we warned him-- only to immediately take the step that made him sink like a stone. So the saying he got stuck with is: "Hah! Wanna make a bet--glub, glub, glub."

Before my sweet baby boy had words, whenever we'd ask him where something was he'd say, "Eee ee ee!" with the same inflection you'd give "Here it is!" To this day the soul mate and I will still occasionally respond that way when we find something we've been searching for.

So I get it. It wasn't that my family lived to annoy me by refusing to let go of my childish "Ain't gonna be foe no moe"--although I don't doubt in my brothers' minds that was a bonus. It's more that such family sayings anchor moments in our lives, moments that bring with them flashes as clear as the days the sayings came into being. I can still see Ron's face just before he stepped off the drop off, can still feel the sun on my shoulders and picture those flip flops as clearly as the day I got them. I can still see my baby's face, all lit up with the pleasure of telling us where the item we asked about was located, if only in babyeze.

So these are a few of my family sayings. What are the ones that have become part of your family lore?