The saying, “I ain’t lost nothin’ over there” is a dismissive way to say “Why in the world would I bother going to that place?” A similar version “you ain’t lost nothin’ down there,” appears in the play Trouble in Mind, by Alice Childress, the first African-American woman to have a play professionally produced in New York City, and first woman to win an Obie for Best Play. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “I Ain’t Lost Nothin’ Over There”
I saw a great production the other day at Moxie Theater here in San Diego called Trouble in Mind.
This is by Alice Childress, who was born in 1912, and she was the first African-American woman to have her work professionally produced on the New York stage.
And there was a phrase in there that just made me sit straight up in my chair.
Someone says to another person, “Where are you going?”
And the person responds, “Down to Turner’s Corner.”
And the first person says, “You ain’t lost nothing down there.”
Grant, that sent a chill down my spine because I have not heard the expression, “You ain’t lost nothing down there” or “You ain’t lost nothing over there” in decades.
But I don’t quite get it.
What does it mean?
You don’t have a reason to go there?
It means that’s a place you don’t want to go.
Yeah.
I mean, it’s really derisive.
I can remember Aunt Mazo saying, “Why would I go there? I ain’t lost nothing over there.”
I have not heard it in decades.
And it reminded me of how, you know, you smell something and all of a sudden you’re back in kindergarten in the lunchroom or whatever.
I mean, it was just one of these really limbic, just bypassing the cerebral part of your brain and going right to the limbic system.
It was amazing.
Where does language connect with your limbic system?
Let us know.
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