A listener reports being puzzled by a phrase she heard from a woman for whom she’d done a small favor: Did you think you’d taken me to raise? Heard mainly in Kentucky and Ohio, this phrase is a joking suggestion that the person who has done the favor has assumed responsibility for the other’s care and upbringing. Similarly, an unreasonable request for a favor might be denied with the phrase I ain’t took you to raise! This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Taken to Raise”
My friend Julie asked me if I knew the expression, take me to raise.
Do you know this expression?
She said she learned it from somebody who grew up in Calhoun, Kentucky.
She wrote me and said, I had saved her a seat in church for some pageant or something.
And when she got there, she asked, did you think you’d taken me to raise?
I had never heard it and wondered where Ray’s was.
But she meant I was taking care of her by saving her a seat,
And so it was as if I had signed on to Ray’s her.
Oh, taking me to Ray’s.
That kind of Ray’s.
It’s not capital R, like Ray’s Pizza in New York or anything like that.
Yeah, I was thinking it was a bar.
R-A-I-S-E.
Yeah, and apparently this is pretty widespread in certain areas,
Particularly Kentucky, Ohio.
And a kid might dismiss an unreasonable request from another kid on the playground,
Saying, I ain’t took you to raise.
Sure, why not?
Yes.
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