Old Scratch

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi there.

Hi, who’s this?

This is Savannah Sterrick calling from Richmond, Virginia.

Welcome to the show. What can we do for you, Savannah?

Well, I have a question that I heard in a home video that my mom recently wanted me to watch. It was an interview of my great-grandma Singleton, who was from Travis Peak, Texas, which is in rural hill country in central Texas, where my mom grew up.

And in the film, the interviewer was basically just asking my great-grandma questions about life in the past and growing up without electricity, courting in her days, et cetera.

Nice.

But at one point in the video, she referred to a male relative as being someone’s old scratch. She kind of laughed after that and kind of embarrassed and asked the person filming if they were going to include that clip in the film. She seemed like she thought she had said more than she ought to or something she shouldn’t have.

Oh, really? That’s great.

Yeah. So I never heard this phrase before. I asked my mom if she knew what it meant, and she thought it meant something like the devil. But she didn’t know what the reference was or where it had come from. So we were both a little stumped.

Was the person she was talking about a rascal?

She kind of insinuated that. She didn’t really give any background story, but yeah, that was kind of the vibe.

And Savannah, was your great-grandma conservative or really religious?

Yes, yes. She grew up Church of Christ, which is pretty conservative, to say the least. And yeah, I think maybe she felt a little embarrassed about what she had said. But she also had a really good sense of humor. Like, she was kind of irreverent sometimes, even though the people in her community were probably not so much.

-huh.

Yeah, well, old scratch does mean the devil or Satan. It’s sort of a euphemism for that old guy. It comes from an old Norse term that means goblin or something like that.

But I’m curious, you said she was referring to someone as somebody else’s old scratch, like a devil belonging to somebody?

It was a male relative who she was talking about, and she was talking about him in reference to either his wife or someone that he was dating. I think it was his wife. So I don’t know. Maybe she was referring to the relationship between them or maybe he did things he shouldn’t have. I don’t know.

Yeah, that sounds right. As Grant suggested, maybe a rascal. I was thinking of a guy who might be stepping out on his wife or something like that.

Oh,

I mean, to get the devil in you, that sort of thing. It would explain things.

Well, there’s another interesting thing happening here. Not necessarily, that’s the case. I’m fascinated by your great-grandmother wondering if that would be taken out of the video because there has long been an injunction, so to speak, against saying the name of the devil at risk that he might appear. So if you mention the devil, historically the superstition was there was a chance then he would enter your life.

Well, sure. Speak of the devil.

Right, exactly. This is part of the reason why we have all of these nicknames and euphemisms for the devil, like Old Ned. Old Billy, old boy.

Yeah, there’s a whole bunch of these.

Old Harry.

Old Harry, yeah.

So maybe she was speaking from a little bit of superstition, almost, like knock on wood or something like that.

Something like that.

Could have been that too.

Yeah, and I’m not to say that she understood the superstition as something that she believed, but just like we might say knock on wood but not have any of the superstition left in us. Just a habit to try to not just mention the devil at all.

Savannah, that video sounds like a real treasure.

Yeah, it was really cool. She was really funny. I mean, I remember her from when I was little, but it was really cool to sit down and watch the video and hear her as an adult.

Yeah, that’s really cool.

Outstanding.

I should do that, right?

What?

Take my older relatives.

Oh gosh, everybody should be taping their older relatives. We have it in our pockets. It’s in our phones, right? Any one of us could do that right now.

That’s right. Those linguistic heirlooms.

Savannah, I want to thank you for sharing a little bit of your family with us.

Absolutely. Thanks for having me.

Take care now. Bye-bye.

Thanks a lot. Bye-bye.

Bye.

Oh yeah, what a treasure.

Here’s your assignment. When you’re done listening to the radio show, get out your cell phone, find the oldest relative who’s near you, and record a few minutes saying, what was it like when you were a child? And see what happens. You’re going to learn some stuff. And then if you have any linguistic stuff come up, some slang or old words or old sayings or things that you didn’t understand, then you call us and we’ll help you figure it out.

Right.

I mean, Savannah was talking about her great-grandma talking about courting and what it was like to live without electricity, all those kinds of things.

Right.

Courting.

Who goes courting anymore?

I know.

I know.

Ask those leading questions about births and deaths and sickness and work and all those things.

And then share it with us, 877-929-9673.

Email words@waywordradio.org.