This unseasonably warm and rainy weather that has flowers blooming too early has also made the ground muddy. John came in from getting fire wood and told me that the way into the pasture was a big gaum and he was afraid the Kubota ATV would go to ball hooting if he wasn't careful.
Before we moved here, I would have thought maybe he was speaking in tongues. But I've learned the language.
A gaum (or gom) is a big mess -- in this case, a patch of mud, though it could apply to a teenager's room. And ball hooting means sliding around. The term come from days of logging with horses -- pulling a big log down hill was dangerous for man and beast and you definitely didn't want that log to go to ball hooting.
11 comments:
Happy birthday to your son, Vicki! Thanks for the explanation of "gaum" and " ball hooting" . If you hadn't
explained what it meant I would have felt more and more estranged from the English speaking world! A language changes all the time.
Thank goodness you explained the language, I would have been lost!
Even though I've lived in this area about as long as you have Vicki, those are two expressions I have never heard of. Interesting ..... We definitely have had our share of rain this winter, but like my husband says, "At least we don't have to shovel it!"
Fascinating. Isn't language, its growth, derivations just a treasure?
How utterly descriptive 'ball hooting'. I can see it!
I knew "gom," as in "gommed up." But "Ball Hooting" is new to me. Wonder if it's used outside North Carolina? But thanks for educating us. Now we'll know what you're saying when a character in one of your novels uses those terms. Jim
wow...have never heard these terms...i find language def very interesting...and a ride on the ATV can be pretty fun too...smiles.
Wil -- this is dialect -- I've heard these words here in western North Carolina but I don't know how wide spread the use is.
Just yesterday, over on the Blind Pig blog, I read a new one: to have the Big Eye is to have insomnia.
Great words that do describe what it must be like...thanks! Another artist who gets into words sometimes is here. http://www.beyondthefieldsweknow.org/
I think you'll enjoy her sacred earth comments today.
Love the dialect! In the day when people are making up words right and left on the internet, it's lovely to hear some of the old, localized expressions. Next time I go to sliding on the ice in my truck, I'll be saying, Lord, please get me safely through this gom of ball hooting! ;-)
Tammy
LOL Love language!!!
Your last sentence, though, of the dangers, reminded me of that scene in "Man From Snowy River" where the father dies while trying to move a log (I think)...ugh.
Vicki -- As a northern, originally, I find many words in the south, "head scratching." But I suppose many of the words I speak make them do the same -- barbara
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