High, Wide, and Handsome

They went “High, Wide and Handsome” was something my Dad always said when someone got a pocketful of” Getus” (money) and went to town presumably to spend the “Getus” buying a new Stetson, boots, cowboy shirt, haircut, maybe a bath and possibility buying drinks for the whole bar called “Timber”. This would also apply to a neighbor buying a new or newer car or anything else he deemed “Top Shelf” which meant they didn’t buy off the bargain rack or the bottom shelf in the store.

Dad and Rhett fishing. Note Dad’s fancy Cowboy Shirt, loved to spend his “Getus” on fancy “Cowboy Shirts”

A new Stetson was a must when you had “Getus”

If someone had a bad eye or a wandering eye he said an old lady he knew when he was little would always label such a person as a” Theft”, not a thief mind you, but a “THEFT”..

If you picked rocks out of the summer fallow field you always picked “DONUTS” not rocks.. For more about donuts and stone boats, take a look at an previous post about rock piles.

He always quoted Shakespeare or the Bible, sometimes not a direct quote, but Bill’s version of the Bible or Shakespeare. For instance instead of “It rains on the just and the unjust” he’d say “It Hails on the just and the unjust.” Shakespeare got his due too as he would ask to no one in particular, “To be or not to be that is the question, but what the hell is the Answer?”

“Well Heeled” is another of the sayings which meant they had some “Getus” (money) or they were well off. As I stated in the earlier post “You gotta know the lingo” this meant they were the “ELITE” (EE-LIGHT) meaning people who lived on the hill in a big house. The “Well Heeled” was just said the other day by my sister Astrid, and I hadn’t heard it in quite some time. Thanks sis.

When my Dad would make a trip to the bank he would go in to “Draw his Breath” that is he was going in to draw some “Getus” out of his account. If he had to borrow money which he absolutely hated to do he would go talk to “The High Muckadee Muck in the Tall chair.” If you ever noticed the old time bankers always sat in a higher chair than you for effect I guess.

Feel free to add your memories from you folks’ lingo, I will be happy to hear them.. Hope I stirred some memories.