A 1904 dialect collection tipped us off to this variation on the idea of going to the land of milk and honey: “Going to find the honey spring and the flitter tree,” flitter being a variant of fritter, as in something fried and delicious. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “The Honey Spring”
Although I know that they talk differently in southeast Missouri, which is where my father’s people were from, there’s a lot of stuff in this dialect notes collection from 1904.
There’s one expression which I really like. You might say this of a person who thinks that they’re going to go someplace where everything is perfect and better. You might say they’re going to find the honey spring and the flitter tree.
And what they mean by that, the flitter actually means fritter. You know, like you might fry a fritter up in a pan. So it’s a thing that you eat. So the honey is going to come from the ground like a spring of water. And the flitters or fritters are going to grow on trees. It basically means they’re going to go find the land of milk and honey.
Right. They have this grass is greener idea. It’s perfect over there. I should go there. Right, right. Where trebles melt like lemon drops.
What’s the phrase again? Give it to me again. The honey spring and the flitter tree. I love that. Yeah. High above the chimney tops.
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