Jeff in Knoxville, Tennessee, is the only one in his family who remembers his grandmother’s card-table exclamation: For crying in a bucket! Whenever she got a bad hand in a game of crazy eights or king’s corners, she’d shout that instead of swearing. She was using a minced oath, one of many playful substitutes for for Christ’s sake!, like for crying out loud! or for crying in the beer! Other variations include for crying in a sink, for crying in a bathtub, for crying in the ocean, for crying in a cemetery, for crying in the creek, for crying in the soup, for crying in the dark, for crying in the alley, and for crying in the rain. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of ““For Crying in a Bucket” and Other Playful Substitutes for “For Christ’s Sake””
Hi.
You have A Way with Words.
Hi.
This is Jeff.
I’m in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Hey, Jeff.
Hi, Jeff.
Welcome to the show.
Well, thank you so much.
I’m glad to be here.
It’s kind of a phrase that really nobody else in my family remembers, but I remember it from as a kid playing cards with my grandmother.
And my mother does not remember it.
My sister does not remember it.
But my grandmother, whenever she would get a bad hand, whether we were playing crazy eights or king’s corners, it didn’t really matter.
And she had a bad hand, she would just say, oh, for crying in a bucket.
And it just struck me as funny.
It stuck with me this whole time.
I talked to my family about it, and they think I’m nuts because they never heard anybody say that before.
Really?
And you just have this great memory of these these fun times with your grandma.
I do.
I do.
I would spend the the night with her a lot of times and, you know, drink Pepsi out of the bottle and and play cards.
Sharp cheddar cheese was one of her favorite snacks on crackers.
So it’s good times.
It it just sounds like you guys are just painting the town red.
She was debauching you with the with the cheese and the Coke.
That’s right.
That’s right.
Exactly.
For crying in a bucket is an established expression.
What’s confusing about it maybe is that it itself is a different version of the much older for Christ’s sake.
It’s another one of those minced oaths, and we talk about a lot of them, where to avoid offending someone or avoid, you know, saying the Lord’s name in vain, you say something that’s roughly similar, but isn’t actually the offense.
So for crying in a bucket is one form of it.
For crying out loud is far more common version of it.
But, people will say for crying in the beer.
And they actually cry in, in this expression, a lot of things like, you cry in a sink, a bathtub, the ocean, a cemetery, the creek, the soup, the dark, the alley, the rain.
There’s all these different things that you that you might cry into.
But it’s an expression of outrage or frustration or surprise, right?
Oh, well, that tracks then.
That makes sense.
Jeff, would you describe her as somebody who would reach for that kind of minced oath rather than say something profane or even more angry?
Oh, for sure.
Yeah.
For sure.
I I don’t think I don’t think I ever heard her say anything, you know, any bad words whatsoever.
Oh, wow.
But so that kinda makes sense that, you know, that that would be a phrase that she would use.
She was an amazing woman.
She lost her husband, my grandfather, in World War two and then raised three kids on her own, never remarried.
I was just one of the most resilient people I ever met in my entire life.
And but, you know, really fun to be with, love love to play cards, and, you know, spend time with family.
So, yeah, it was good.
Well, I love that those memories of her are preserved in that little phrase.
Do you use it yourself?
I I do.
I I do.
Much to my family, my my wife and my daughters, you know, they’ve heard me say it for years, and they think it’s it’s cute and kind of funny, but didn’t you know, I think they thought the same thing.
I think they were thinking it was, you know, kind of a, oh, for goodness sake, or something like along those lines.
Yeah.
Right.
But didn’t really have, you know, context No.
Right.
To what it might have been.
Well, now you know.
Now you can go back to people and say, see, I’m not just weird like my grandma.
Well, the jury is still out on that, but anyway.
Well, think you’re fine, Jeff.
Yeah.
Jeff, thank you so much for calling.
Yeah, we appreciate it.
Take care.
Absolutely.
So much.
Sure.
Bye bye.
Yep, you bet.
You guys have a good day.
You too.
You too.
Well, for crying in a bucket, give us a call.
