PON MY HONOR!!
Well, "Pon my honor!" My sister-in-law's mother uses that phrase often.
"Pon my honor children, you all are about to drive me crazy slamming that screen door. Get in and stay or get out and stay!"
"Pon my honor! I don't know what poor folks are goina do if they keep a'raisin the prices of things."
"Pon my honor! If you ain't out of there in 2 minutes I'll take a good keen switch to your naked legs and then you'll be glad to get out!"
Once I asked my SIL what her Mom meant or was saying when she used that phrase. She said she thought it was supposed to be "Upon my honor," and her Mom just shortened it a bit to "Pon my honor."
Anyone else ever hear that one said?
Cliff had posted about all the good garden produce and one of them was watermelon. When I was a kid we grew just about everything there was (sure seemed like it back then!), and we grew our own watermelons. They were so good. I remember Daddy taking a big knife and slicing us off a piece and then we'd take it outside and sit on the porch and eat it with the juice just running down our chins and we would spit the seeds out in the yard. Nowadays it doesn't seem like they taste good like they used to. Did they really taste better back then or is it just my memory playing tricks on me?
"Pon my honor children, you all are about to drive me crazy slamming that screen door. Get in and stay or get out and stay!"
"Pon my honor! I don't know what poor folks are goina do if they keep a'raisin the prices of things."
"Pon my honor! If you ain't out of there in 2 minutes I'll take a good keen switch to your naked legs and then you'll be glad to get out!"
Once I asked my SIL what her Mom meant or was saying when she used that phrase. She said she thought it was supposed to be "Upon my honor," and her Mom just shortened it a bit to "Pon my honor."
Anyone else ever hear that one said?
Cliff had posted about all the good garden produce and one of them was watermelon. When I was a kid we grew just about everything there was (sure seemed like it back then!), and we grew our own watermelons. They were so good. I remember Daddy taking a big knife and slicing us off a piece and then we'd take it outside and sit on the porch and eat it with the juice just running down our chins and we would spit the seeds out in the yard. Nowadays it doesn't seem like they taste good like they used to. Did they really taste better back then or is it just my memory playing tricks on me?
posted by Rachel at 7:06 PM
23 Comments:
Rachel, Rachel, Rachel
They tasted much better back then. I don't think we grew as many for profit nor did we need any "altering" - we just grew them.
Ralph
'Pon My Honor' I believe was a way of expressing one's sincerity.
Ralph is right!Flavor of produce has been severly altered. I believe because things have had the flavor hybridized right out of them.
Growers are more interested in quantity, disease resistance etc.I try to get heirloom seeds and trees. It's the only way to get the real thing anymore.
Bev (Mountain Mama) stole my comment! ;D I was going to say exactly what she said.
I've heard "pon my honor" all my life. Mostly the more mature folks say it these days, though. :-)
My mom used to say that all the time and it was always "Pon my Honor".
Nothing like a good sweet watermellon. A friend of mine gave me some "home grown" tomatoes and cuecumbers and we ate them tonight... Wow, there is just nothing like a home grown tomato...
My dad used to garden as long as I can remember. We always had good veggies from the garden for dinner. I sure miss that.
I've heard "pon my word" before, perhaps from people without honor?? all sorts of fruit and veg used to taste better before all the fast growing hybrids became so popular.
You look like the real deal at that pulpit Rachel.
Love the photo, so sweet!
Pon my honor, I haven't had a good tastin' melon in many a year!
:)
CUTE! love that photo, have a good Sunday
My KY grandparents would use that phrase from time to time.
Watermelon doesn't taste quite the same now as it did when we ate it the way you described. I think Bev and Diane are correct that the hybrid ones just don't have the flavor. Do they have heirloom watermelons?
xo
I do love watermelon and it does seem like everything used to taste better as a kid...But of course things are now picked when they are green so that they can be shipped. And don't even get me started on all of the genetic alerations they have made to our food.
That picture is sure cute and I do love your Sunday sign.
I've heard that saying (Pon my honor) but have never used it.
I don't know what it may have been like back then, but I am confident it tasted much better than today's melons which are over sprayed and over harvested. This picture is precious!
My former neighbor Diane's right. I used to hear it all the time in Arkansas years ago. Haven't heard it since I moved back to CA though.
You'd think living in the middle of the San Joaquin valley we'd have the best produce in the country.
We don't. Nothing can compare to the veggies and fruit we grew on my uncle's small farm in upstate New York. Not as large as California veggies but they had so much flavor.
Nothing quite like picking a strawberry or tomato, standing there, and eating it.
Ann (aka granny)
I have never heard that said by anyone.(pon my honor)
Now that is just the cutest picture I have ever seen!...Brings back memories of watermelon times when my kids were little! There was never a better treat than a watermelon- nor a messier one either! :)
Junie
I never heard that before.
Pon my honor that's a cute baby pic with that tasty looking watermelon.
I've never heard of "Pon my honor" before - but I like it! It's got a good southern ring to it.
Southern US and Appalachian dialect is fascinating and very colourful. A lot of it is remnants from earlier English usage as far back as the Elizabethan era, which has been abandoned by the mother tongue. 'Pon My Honor is a contraction of Upon My Honour, which is an oath of truthfulness.
It seems to have been widely used in Eastern Tennessee.
In the Overton County Library there is a thin volumn which uses it in its title. Melton, Callie M., " 'Pon my honor: folk tales of the upper Cumberland."
Here is a source of a discussion of the phrase http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/47/messages/1045.html
No napkins or additives and homegrown. I sure remember them tasting better. LOVED our veggies from my dad's veggie garden. I thought of him on Father's Day. Thanks for those sweet memories, like of him climbing high up to the roof of the house, posing for a photo with a wide grin on his face as he took down a humongous cucumber.
*Adorable* pic!!!
They tasted better. No doubt about it. And the oblong ones like that little tyke's are far better tasting than the round ones. If you ask me.
Somewhere (China?) they are growing square melons in boxes so they will be easier to stack in the truck and ship.
My Grandmother in Southwest Virginia said "Well upon my honor" when she was astonished. I like the phrase and use it from time to time.
I have heard that phrase my whole life.i still use it.. proud hillbilly I am from wv but my grandma and grandpa we from Kentucky..devil anse Hatfield was related to us.
My Mother from Eastern KY said it all of the time , like you said in astonishment ♥️
My dearly departed Mother was from Hazard KY and she used this expression a lot when she was astonished ♥️ I was born in WV . I sure miss the Appalachian area 😢
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