If you need a variation on the phrase “son of gun,” there’s always “son of a who cut your hair last.” It’s one of several colorful expressions that a San Diego listener’s great aunt used. Others include “you’re full of old shoes,” and, “stick some mad money in your budge,” in the event that a date goes sour. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Colorful Expressions from San Diego”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hello.
Hi, who’s this?
This is Barb from San Diego.
Hi, Barb. Welcome to the show. How can we help you?
Thank you.
An expression that my great aunt used to use frequently, and it was, son of a who cut your hair last.
A who what? Can we say that on the radio?
Son of a who?
Son of a who?
Son of a who cut your hair last.
Sounds naughty. Is it?
No, it just means son of a gun.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, and she would also say, you’re full of old shoes.
You’re full of old shoes.
Nice.
That’s good.
I’ve never heard that.
Son of a who cut your hair last is really clever.
It kind of avoids being completely offensive, but also adds another insult because it indicates you have a bad haircut.
That’s true.
Or somebody did a very bad job cutting your hair.
She also used to say, you’re full of what makes the grass grow.
You’re full of what makes the grass grow.
Or fish fertilizer.
You ever smelled those piles of fish fertilizer?
Oh, nasty.
Yeah, terrible.
She sounds like a colorful, opinionated person.
She was.
She truly was.
And it was all delivered with a severe Boston accent.
Okay.
So who cut your hair last?
Yeah, your hair.
Your hair last.
And I was, oh, Barbara.
Barbara, you’re full of old shoes.
Nice.
You’re full of what makes the grass grow.
There’s this old comedy play from the 1850s, the kind of thing they would do on stage, vaudeville sort of stuff, where it’s this whole routine where this guy comes into this barber shop and the barber doesn’t remember him and the barber says, who cut your hair last? And the guy’s like, you did.
Anyway, I don’t know if it’s related, but I thought it was worth mentioning here.
Oh, maybe.
Maybe, yeah.
Oh, that’s so funny.
Yeah, she was very colorful.
She also told me when I became a teenager, I should always stick some mad money in my budge just in case my fella got mad on me.
Your budge?
I know mad money. That’s if you get mad on the date, right?
Is your budge your bosom or your pocketbook?
Yeah, she never wore a bra, so she just stuck it in her budge.
Oh, okay, gotcha.
Oh, I would have guessed budge was a purse.
Okay.
No, no, she told me it was in your budge, just in case.
Your fella got mad on you, you got mad on your fella.
She sounds like something out of an old movie, I’m telling you.
She sounds like a script written just to wow the crowds.
Yeah.
That’s amazing.
Barbara, thank you so much for sharing these stories and your memories.
Well, my pleasure.
Thank you for allowing me to.
All right.
Take care now.
All right.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
We know you have a bunch of colorful talkers in your family. Give us a call, 877-929-9673, or tell us all about it in an email to words@waywordradio.org.
