# The funny or 'country' things we say...



## Cat (Jun 19, 2004)

I catch myself saying some really odd things in my every-day speech and today I heard one of my co-workers use one of the same words I use quite frequently - beens. (binz) Another one I use which irritates me every time I catch myself using it (although truth be told I'm sure I say it a billion times for every time I catch myself saying it!) is guyses. As in, I had to borrow you guyses rake. Anyone else willing to fess up to their not-so-sthmart-sounding vocal fox paws?


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## alabamared (May 23, 2005)

We don't say anything funny around here. How come the rest of the world has an accent?


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## greeneyedgirl70 (Aug 26, 2007)

Over yonder 
Yawl 
ya reckon
there said with that very southern drawwwll that folks around these parts just dont here them selves a sayin


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## quadcam79 (Oct 1, 2007)

I used to laugh at it and now I catch myself saying it..
"Do what?"

someone will say something and if the other person didnt hear what they said they go "do what?"

I have managed not to include "fixin" in my vocabulary as in "fixin to make dinner", "fixin to go to the store"


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## mistletoad (Apr 17, 2003)

A few days before Christmas our mail was delivered to the wrong house again and Dh said "Seems like the mailman is on crack anymore." Oh I couldn't stop laughing. He claims he didn't say it, but he did and the boys and I won't let him forget it either.

I'm english, I couldn't possibly list all of my oddities here


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## MomOf4 (Jan 2, 2006)

I am a real stickler with my kids when it comes to using proper english. I will correct them, and and I won't respond until they say it correctly (something I got from my dad, I guess...)

The one thing we do say is "ya'll" - somehow picked that up when I visited Georgia a couple years ago. My dad still says things like "I reckon", and "spose" though.

Funny story - my 12 YO (adopted) DD was interviewed by the local news station this past summer when participating in an event for domestic violence awareness (her mother and sister were murdered a few years ago by mom's husband). She was asked about the importance of the event, and she says (ON TELEVISION), "People who are _infected_ by domestic violence need to know where to go for help". She's the worst when it comes to using the right words - but I'll give her an A for effort on that one!


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## Calfkeeper (Feb 1, 2006)

Here in Missouri they say "y'uns" instead of "y'all" I have caught myself using that a couple of times, much to my dismay.


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

I caught myself calling a shopping cart a 'buggy' the other day.....I vowed when we moved to the south that I would never do that. And I wasn't in the south when I said it.

One my mom always said, 'we ain't got no never no mind."
Or "I'm fixin' to _______"
'Crick' rather than creek
'Impordant' in place of important.


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## GrannyG (Mar 26, 2005)

"dark thirty"....a little after sunset


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## Katrina26 (Nov 18, 2007)

GA, at least where I live:

there = thar

for= fer


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## nduetime (Dec 15, 2005)

The two I say the most are;

"Oh, for the love of chickens!"

"Buck up buckaroo"

I am pretty boring most of the time. Although, I have been known when I amangry to say "I will beat you like a slow mule on a steep hill!"


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## oldgaredneck (Jan 2, 2007)

alabamared said:


> We don't say anything funny around here. How come the rest of the world has an accent?



Often wondered that myself, Neighbor!!!


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## Cat (Jun 19, 2004)

Oh, I use 'do what?' too...and fixin', although I do try to stop that one, too. 

My cousins/family in AR use y'uns. I'll use y'all in writing but rarely say it unless I'm joking around. Another one is 'what for'....as in, I'm going to give you what for in a minute.

Ones that bother me to hear from others are, 'crick' & Pee eblo in reference to Pueblo CO. My Mom says both. 

People I work with call the ambulances buggies. I call 'em ambulances or 'the unit'. 

A lady I work with talks about 'getting your goat up' (when you're riled).

My niece, when talking about why she doesn't try to use 'big' words, is because she doesn't want to use them in the wrong text and look like a dummy. lol


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## Pigeon Lady (Apr 4, 2004)

It's not a cart or a buggy it's a trolly! 

Pauline


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## RoseGarden (Jun 5, 2005)

I have multiple college degrees, but you know what? I decided a long time ago I wasn't going to be brainwashed into believing I needed to sanitize my speech of my accent and peculiar or quaint sayings. It's as much a part of who I am as are the accents and sayings of well educated people from other countries and cultures. If I work with someone from France or India or wherever, I am as entitled to my way of speaking English as they are of speaking theirs. Does that make me 'sound' uneducated? Maybe, but the actual content of what I say more than speaks for itself in such situations.

Ok, so I still say 'y'all, y'alls, ye, do what?, fixin', reckon?, tote off, tard (for tired), fire house (for fire station), parts house (for auto supply), bedstead (for the entire bed), bedclothes (for sheets, quilts, etc.), ice box (for refrigerator) and I caught myself pronouncing motorcycle as 'motor-sickle'.


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## greeneyedgirl70 (Aug 26, 2007)

Pigeon Lady said:


> It's not a cart or a buggy it's a trolly!
> 
> Pauline


Nope it is a BUGGY here... lol
when i first moved here & my hubby and i went shopping together he referred to a shopping cart as a BUGGY and still does. I catch myself picking up on how he talks now  

OH and what gets under my skin is when he says DO WHAT when he missed what i have said! It is not DO WHAT it is what did you say! 
Oh for the love of pete what is with his talking anyways? :shrug:


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## silentcrow (Mar 15, 2005)

greeneyedgirl70 said:


> *It is not DO WHAT *it is what did you say!
> Oh for the love of pete what is with his talking anyways? :shrug:


I always used "Say what?"


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## EDDIE BUCK (Jul 17, 2005)

Ya'll come back_ while they getting in car to leave.
Ya'll be careful driving back home- - musta been reckless coming over.
Got to go break a turn of collards.
Got to clean this mess of fish for it rains if it do I'll get wet.


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## Peacock (Apr 12, 2006)

greeneyedgirl70 said:


> OH and what gets under my skin is when he says DO WHAT when he missed what i have said! It is not DO WHAT it is what did you say!


Too funny -- I say that sometimes!

My dad used to step it up further -- "do what to who?"  

My mom had a lot of funny sayings. Not nearly as much as my grandma. I wish I could remember them all. "That's a purty fur piece" didn't mean something you were wearing, it was "far away." And one of her favorite sayings was "Poop or get off the pot." It means make up your mind! And she didn't say poop. She used the S-word. It just isn't the same without it. 

Here in Cincinnati (well, I used to live there, now I'm a little bit north) they say "Please" instead of "huh?" or "do what?"  

I have a saying that I don't know about anyone else using but me -- everyone thinks it's really funny that I refer to the TV remote control as the "flipper."


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## lvshrs (Nov 7, 2004)

I'll always remember this gal from New York State who came to live in Texas for a while. She always swore she would NEVER use the word "ya'll". I think about two months later our unique way of talkin' slipped up on her and you guessed it she said "ya'll" in a lovely Texas Drawl. :cowboy:  I don't think I've ever seen such a look of mortification pass across someone's face! She slapped her hand over her mouth and turned a lovely shade of red!  :rotfl:


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## chickenista (Mar 24, 2007)

"of an evening"..meaning at night. Or "of a morning", meaning in the morning. "I shut the chickens up of an evening." 
My old great aunts had a way of talking that is only heard within my family. Not many other people in that county of the mountains speak the way they did..my father still has it and a few cousins, but it is almost gone. I don't do it..but I know how it is done. Sometimes..if I am really, really tired.....
"Kelvinator" for the fridge.. I swear I think it was the only brand!
"It hain't" For ain't. "h'it" for it.
"his'n..her'n..your'n
"warsh" for wash. All a sounds followed by an "r" are hard A's. Brainch=branch..also a stream.
"rickin" for reckon
"rill" or "crick" for a creek or stream..a rill is for a very small stream.not much more than a trickle.
"Whelp. I'm a fixin to getonup outacheer." Well, I am getting ready to get on up out of here.
"Lawk'samussy he took to a whuupin up on that chile. I swanna he'd ne'er cease."
...Just read Foxfire out loud and you'll be home!


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## Shygal (May 26, 2003)

mistletoad said:


> A few days before Christmas our mail was delivered to the wrong house again and Dh said "Seems like the mailman is on crack anymore." Oh I couldn't stop laughing. He claims he didn't say it, but he did and the boys and I won't let him forget it either.



People around here ALL use "anymore" that way, ive never heard it used that way until I moved here


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## Peacock (Apr 12, 2006)

mistletoad said:


> A few days before Christmas our mail was delivered to the wrong house again and Dh said "Seems like the mailman is on crack anymore." Oh I couldn't stop laughing. He claims he didn't say it, but he did and the boys and I won't let him forget it either.


Oh good grief, I didn't even catch what was unusual with that phrase until Shygal pointed it out! I thought maybe y'all were talking about the crack thing. I guess I say "anymore" like that too.

And chickenista, my grandma would say "of a morning" etc. too. 

I love threads like this. I can't even remember all the little sayings my grandma and my mom had -- my mom pretty much "sanitized" her speech throughout many years of working in an office, she thought the accent and slang terms made her look like a dumb hick. It brings back wonderful memories, so please keep them coming.

I've noticed I have some odd pronunciations I use, not thinking about it and I wonder where they come from? Like "winduh" instead of window, I say that almost without fail. 

OK, just one more thing - I wonder if all cities or regions are like this - you can tell which part people are from by their speech? I've heard of England being this way, but I swear SW Ohio - specifically Cincinnati - is like this too. You can tell if someone is from the east or west side, from a northern suburb and whatnot. (btw I'm from the east side. )


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## Cat (Jun 19, 2004)

edayna said:


> Here in Cincinnati (well, I used to live there, now I'm a little bit north) they say "Please" instead of "huh?" or "do what?"


LOL I actually say, "I'm sorry?" a lot, rather than 'what?' or 'huh?'

I can usually tell when a US born Hispanic is from Colorado. I can't even think now what about their speech and the way they speak that I can pick up on, but I've never been wrong yet! (Granted, I don't go asking just any hispanic I meet about their state of origin.)

My Grandma says 'chit far' a lot. I've never really determined if it's actually 'chit fire' or, as cows are prone to do, truly 'chit far'. lol

Another one, 'tooling'...Every time I call my Mom and she's in her car, she's 'tooling along'. Of course, EVERY time I call someone I know I say, "Yeeessss, what are you doing?" Every time she answers it's, "Oh, I'm just tooling along." or Tooling right along. 

My SIL and niece, who are German, call skunks STUNKS. lol Talk about lost in translation! It's too cute to correct, though.


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## TC (Jun 22, 2005)

Mine is just Texan talk but here goes:

can't with a drawn out long "A" sound

"git" for "get"

sure 'nuff ....meaning "you mean it" or "I agree" or any other meaning we attach to it

reckon ....used all the time

leave it be instead of let it be

whoopin' 

'magine or 'mangine so ....means "I guess"

oughta instead of ought to (I don't even know if "ought to" is proper  ...would be funny if we make a slang word out of a slang word  )

ain't and ya'll are proper English  and spoken even in English class here 

tater and 'mater

crawdad for crawfish (actually not sure which is proper, but I say crawdad)

I can't even spell how we say "here" especially if we are yelling at a young'un (another one) to "git over here" maybe some other texan can help with that one. 

Main thing is you gotta drawl everything, it's in our blood. (any other southerners out there who when you call about a bill or something...and the operator is from New York or somewhere and she talks too fast to understand her  )


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## MyHomesteadName (Dec 2, 2006)

Ya'll got it all wonkerjawed, I'm fixin' to take off. If you get my drift.


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## billy (Nov 21, 2005)

I reckon hit (for "it") ain`t unnatural around these parts to hear tarred (for "tired") or folks say "turn-ups" for turnips.  I b`lieve we speak pretty fair English. We gen`ly (for "generally") get along. Y`all come!


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## TC (Jun 22, 2005)

They ain't called "turn ups" ????


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## Spinner (Jul 19, 2003)

If you don't call them turn ups, then how do you pronounce turnups? 

I don't think I say anything unusual, but a friend of mine did once. We was talking about whether we was going to go to the store or to somewhere else first. When she ask my opinion I simply told her, it don't make me no never mind. She busted out laughing and in a very over done southern drawl she said, "it don't make me no never mind". 

After that happened I was real careful not to say that anymore. A couple years ago I heard my dad say it. Now I know where I learned it from. LOL

Around here lots of people say "cowboy up". When I first moved here it sounded weird to hear it so often. Now it sounds normal and I probably say it myself without even thinking about it.


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## quadcam79 (Oct 1, 2007)

I laugh at my gf everytime she says 
"mack donalds" , " eye talian" and "halfin" instead of having


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## TC (Jun 22, 2005)

Thought of another one, but I'm not sure if it's Texan, southern or proper English

"ya'll behave, now!" meaning to mind, act right...of course we say it "bee have" 

Is that proper, or do we just say it?


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## quadcam79 (Oct 1, 2007)

greeneyedgirl70 said:


> OH and what gets under my skin is when he says DO WHAT when he missed what i have said! It is not DO WHAT it is what did you say!



do what now?


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## Peacock (Apr 12, 2006)

I just remembered two more.

When my mom was in the hospital, she complained that her glasses were "cattywompus", crooked & bent.

And when she was feeling bad she said she felt like she'd been "rode hard and put away wet."

When she was feeling even worse, she said she felt like she'd been "sent for but couldn't go."


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## hotzcatz (Oct 16, 2007)

We don't have "cattywompus", we have "hemajang" and "all bus up" for feeling bad. And the grocery carts, trolleys or buggies are called wagons. We also have soda instead of pop or phosphates.

We also have local pidgen but I'm not even sure we have enough of a congruent database to explain it much. 

We get "cowboy up" but we also get "hemo da puka" which loosely translates to "get the gate" although a tighter translation would be to "grab the hole". A lot of things are called by their Hawaiian names so cowboys are paniolo, cows are pipi, etc.


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## tamatik (Jan 3, 2006)

"LOL I actually say, "I'm sorry?" a lot, rather than 'what?' or 'huh?'

"
after someone says that I usually say "what did you do?"
the wife also says "do what?"


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## doohap (Feb 23, 2003)

My first husband was born 'n raised in southwest Louisiana, deep in the heart of Cajun Country in a little community called Cecelia. The local dialect is Cajun French, a beautiful and fascinating mixture of French where Spanish and English words are thrown in casually and often. And there's a particular accent when they speak that those familiar with it will understand.

I had been dating him for a while. I lived in the capital city and, though I'm sure my accent would give me away as a southerner, I certainly did not have a Cajun accent. However, one particular day, after we had been visiting with his parents and some friends in Cecelia for a while, we were driving along a country road when, as we rounded a curve, the sun shot through the windshield and blinded me. 

"M'a, that sun bright yeah," came out of my mouth in perfect "****---" form!

It tickled my future husband.


doohap


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## EDDIE BUCK (Jul 17, 2005)

edayna said:


> I just remembered two more.
> 
> When my mom was in the hospital, she complained that her glasses were "cattywompus", crooked & bent.
> 
> ...


 I remember my uncle telling me "After you cut this field crossways then cut it "catabowersome" Anybody ever heard that before? Don't know if its spelled right or not.


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## Queen Bee (Apr 7, 2004)

I find myself saying these all the time and trying really hard NOT to say them:

crack the window (open the window a tiny bit)
turn the light on the stove on ( turn the stove burner on)
Washing powders ( det. for the washing maching)
Yonder (a direction, place or room)
Whoopersided (not level, straight or even)
Naked as a jaybird (no clothes at all)
Crazy as a **** (stupid)
not the shapest tool in the shed (really stupid)


'cheer' (my husbands way of pronouncing chair)
chimley (dh's way of saying chimney)
'hoped' (dfil's way of saying helped)
Walmartzz (inlaws way of saying Walmart)

Queen Bee


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## JanetJ (Aug 19, 2002)

Around here it's not expensive. It's "spendy".


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## Cat (Jun 19, 2004)

I absolutely love how GWB says 'terror'. I really want to know who Tara is and what she did to make him so mad!


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## TC (Jun 22, 2005)

Cat said:


> I absolutely love how GWB says 'terror'. I really want to know who Tara is and what she did to make him so mad!



I say terror like that too!


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## Peacock (Apr 12, 2006)

Tara is my cousin.  Hearing GWB speak always puts me in mind of her.

One thing I noticed is most folks around here add an "s" on the names of stores. For example, Kroger grocery store is "Krogers" and yes, we have Walmarts and JC Penneys and Meijers. And, honestly, Tractor Supplies or TSC's.


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## AnnaS (Nov 29, 2003)

My mother's people are from southern Illinois, and South Carolina & Virginia before that, so we have some of the Southern dialect.Ya'll, fetch, fixin', discombobulated, and the rarely mentioned, but distinctive, WARSHED.

As in, "I warshed them dishes."

Combine this with a Minnesota accent right out of "Fargo".

"Yaaaaa, I warshed them dishes. You betcha."


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## doohap (Feb 23, 2003)

AnnaS said:


> ... and the rarely mentioned, but distinctive, WARSHED. ...


I had a co-worker ... a really cute young lady from D'lo (pronounced dee-lo), Mississippi. She also pronounced wash as "warsh." We got along great and picked at each other a lot. When you work a lot of hours together you learn each other pretty well.

Anyway, one day I look at her just after she'd told me about "warshing" something and asked her, "Terri, how do you spell that?" She looked at me straight-faced and answered with no hesitation, "W-A-R-S-H!"

We had a great laugh together.  

Smiles,
doohap


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## TSYORK (Mar 16, 2006)

when it's real hot we say "hotter than a whore in church."
when someone's tight with money we say they're "tighter than a fleas nose stretched across a fence post."
when it's raining really hard we say "it's raining bull frogs and pitchforks."


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## Fae (Mar 9, 2005)

After moving to Chicago at the age of 14 I got picked at a lot for my accent. I was born and raised in Alabama and Louisiana. I did everything I could to speak proper english. After living there for a few years I moved back to Alabama. Of course, everyone here in rural south Alabama called me a yankee. Now after nearly 40 years, I speak Alabama english and don't worry if someone doesn't like it. It's comforable. My husband speaks a lot of the old way. He says yourn, study for steady, tard for tired, and many others. I do try to say words the right way but I say ya'll, fixin to, yonder and many (most) of the others common to the southern states. I'm just glad to finally be comfortable with it.


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## big rockpile (Feb 24, 2003)

Calfkeeper said:


> Here in Missouri they say "y'uns" instead of "y'all" I have caught myself using that a couple of times, much to my dismay.


Yea I was way up in NYC Girl up there caught me saying y'uns
and she says you are from southern Missouri arn't you  How did you know?


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## Cat (Jun 19, 2004)

edayna said:


> Tara is my cousin.  Hearing GWB speak always puts me in mind of her.
> 
> One thing I noticed is most folks around here add an "s" on the names of stores. For example, Kroger grocery store is "Krogers" and yes, we have Walmarts and JC Penneys and Meijers. And, honestly, Tractor Supplies or TSC's.


!!! That's another one! I do call it JC Penny's, and ours are actually Dillon's (part of the Kroger family) but Mom calls the IHOP IHOPS and it absolutely drives me bonkers to hear it! lol So I'm a bit on the AR side. I won't tell if you don't! 

A woman I work with says that 'hotter than a whore in church' quite often. She's hilarious and says stuff that you just don't ever expect to come out of her mouth. Another of her favorite sayings, in reference to one of those eek! moments, is, 'That makes my butt pucker.' I love working with her because you can always count on her to make ya laugh!


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## EDDIE BUCK (Jul 17, 2005)

Cat said:


> !!! That's another one! I do call it JC Penny's, and ours are actually Dillon's (part of the Kroger family) but Mom calls the IHOP IHOPS and it absolutely drives me bonkers to hear it! lol So I'm a bit on the AR side. I won't tell if you don't!
> 
> A woman I work with says that 'hotter than a whore in church' quite often. She's hilarious and says stuff that you just don't ever expect to come out of her mouth. Another of her favorite sayings, in reference to one of those eek! moments, is, 'That makes my butt pucker.' I love working with her because you can always count on her to make ya laugh!


 I've always heard" sweating like a whore in church".
Also" he was so nervous he couldn't s**t in a ten acre field. 
Oh, the reason them S's are on them names, take it up with Sears they started it. :nana: 
Ever heard this : Hes got bout as much chance of winning as a one legged man in an a**kicking contest


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## Queen Bee (Apr 7, 2004)

My girls still say: "Daaaadee" in a southern belle twang, when they want or need something from their daddy..and they don't even know they are saying it!! They swear they don't! Southern girls and their daaaadee!


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