After a long run, Angela in Dallas, Texas, remembered her mother’s instruction to wash your granny beads—clean the sweaty dirt that collects in the creases of the neck. The expression is associated especially with the United States South; another childhood name for the same grime is dirt necklaces. Randy Houser uses granny-beaded neck in Boots On, and one possible older echo is the 1920s and ’30s fashion for colorful glass or plastic necklaces also called granny beads. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of ““Granny Beads” and “Dirt Necklaces” Describe the Same Dirty Neck Creases”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Angela from Dallas. How are you?
Welcome to the show.
Thank you, guys. I’m excited to be here.
My question is, when I was growing up, my mom used to say, we’d come in from outdoors from playing, and she would say, make sure to wash your granny beads.
And at the time, I don’t know, like looking back if I don’t remember, but I didn’t even question it. And I knew that it had to do with washing my neck. But as I got older, just the other day, I came in from a long run and I thought, God, I’m really dirty. And I thought, oh, I need to wash my granny beads. And I thought, oh, I wonder where that saying came from, because it sounds so, well, it sounds kind of ugly, you know, like against like saying like maybe older people are dirty or something. And I was like, I wonder where that came from.
So I asked her, and she said, well, I don’t know where it came from, but my mom used to say that to me.
So what do you guys think?
So what would your mom say to you?
Can you say that again, please?
Make sure you wash your granny beads.
Granny beads.
B-E-A-D-S.
Granny, like grandma?
Grandma.
And actually, I call my grandma granny.
So granny beads, B-E-A-D-S, like a necklace.
Okay.
Gotcha.
Well, you’re exactly right. When you describe it as being like a necklace, you know, a little kid gets out there in the dirt and is playing around and getting sweaty. And they have those creases in their neck and they get clogged with sweat and dirt. And they do look like a necklace kind of, right?
Oh, well, I’ve never had kids, so I don’t know.
We called them dirt necklaces when I was a kid.
Oh, did you really?
Yeah.
Oh, no kidding.
Oh, how funny.
So do you think that’s something they use all across the United States or just down here in the South?
Definitely in the South.
There’s a country singer named Randy Hauser who about 10 years ago, he had a hit song called Boots On. That’s sort of about going out on the town after you’ve been working hard all day. And he has a little part in there where he talks about sporting his dirty old hat and crooked little grin and granny beaded neck. And apparently he had to explain. Yeah, you’ll have to look up this song Boots On because it’s its a great song. But he apparently was asked about this and he said that granny beads are what they’re called when a grandma works in the garden all day and they have a handkerchief around their neck with a lot of dust on them. And then the sweat will go down and make these black beads of dirt and sweat around their neck.
So I can just see, like, little kids, you know, thinking, well, I’m wearing a necklace like granny. Of course you get them other places besides your neck, right, like behind your knees and in your elbows.
Right, right.
Yeah.
Yeah, I’ve seen those.
Well, thank you guys so much. That’s very interesting, and I hope everyone is watching their granny beat.
Take care, Angela.
Be well.
Thanks, Angela.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
But you know, there’s another path we might consider, Martha. In the 1920s and 30s, there was a trend for young women to wear something called granny beads. These were plastic or glass beads strung around your neck. Lots of them, like big loops of them, almost like Mardi Gras beads you wear with a dress or an outfit. And they weren’t expensive or anything, but they were stylish and colorful, and you’d just throw them on. And maybe that’s what the saying refers to.
Yeah, it could be. There’s a long history of wearing granny beads one way or another. But they weren’t necessarily for grandmas, but for some reason referred to grandmas.
-huh. Yeah, I could see that.
Well, you know, it’s funny how often our calls start with a memory and turn out to be something that the young generation still says and still remembers, right?
Yeah.
There’s a bridge here from 100 years ago or 150 years ago, and the past is still present. And you can tell us that present, 877-929-9673.
Email words@waywordradio.org or start a conversation on Twitter @wayword.
