"I ate so much okra I slid out of bed!" (1930s? East Texas?)
Laurence Horn
laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Thu Oct 18 23:47:18 UTC 2007
At 7:36 PM -0400 10/18/07, Wilson Gray wrote:
>Stewed okry vaguely resembles red peppers, except that it's green and
>appears to be covered in a colorless mucilage trivially distinct from
>nasal mucus. It takes some getting used to, even if the eater is a
>native of East texas whose been fed it since becoming old enough to
>eat solid food, especially after the mucilaginous substance has ceased
>to be unique in the eater's experience.
>
>I don't know why, but, IMO, the stuff is as sticky as mucilage or the
>grease from pig tails, swine neckbones, pig ears, pigs' feet, or pig
>snoots and not very slick at all. Our okry was home-grown, so that may
>have had something to do with it. Different subspecies or some such.
>Who knows?
>
>-Wilson
Much ado about nothing. I'm from New York and
I've loved okra, stewed and fried and Indian,
since I first tried 'em lo these 40 or years ago.
Took me no getting used to, any more than squid.
Now jellyfish and sea cucumber, *they* took
getting used to, and I'm not sure I'm there yet.
(Given the popularity of gumbo, I'm pretty sure
I'm not alone in my okraphilia, although I may be
a bit extreme in this--not everyone s(l)ips into
a dry okratini every night...)
LH
>
>On 10/18/07, Barry Popik <bapopik at gmail.com> wrote:
>> ---------------------- Information from the
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>> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster: Barry Popik <bapopik at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject: "I ate so much okra I slid out of bed!" (1930s? East Texas?)
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Anyone remember this?
>> ...
>> ...
>> ...
>>
>>http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/i_ate_so_much_okra_i_slid_out_of_bed_or_i_couldnt_keep_my_socks_up/
>> ...
>> Entry from October 18, 2007
>> "I ate so much okra I slid out of bed!" or "I couldn't keep my socks up!"
>> Boiled okra has a reputation for being slimy. Many people survived on
>> okra in the depression years of the 1930s, and the phrase arose: "I
>> ate so much okra I slid out of bed!" Some people prefer the less slimy
>> fried okra instead.
>>
>> Roy Blount Jr.'s ode "To Okra" in the July 1976 Atlantic Monthly hints
>> that if you eat too much okra, you'll have trouble keeping your socks
>> up.
>>
>>
>> Food Tale: Okra
>> Okra
>> (Abelmoschus esculentus)
>> Okra, related to the hibiscus and a member of the mallow family, is
>> native to tropical Africa or Asia--and was cultivated by the Egyptians
>> in the 12 century AD. It slowly traveled south into the central lands
>> of Africa; north and west to Mediterranean lands and ultimately to the
>> Balkans; and east to the subcontinent of India.
>>
>> It arrived in the United States in the 18th century with the slave
>> trade, on a ship filled with Bantu tribes people. In no time at all it
>> became a cornerstone in southern cooking, Texan cuisine, and perhaps
>> most especially the distinctive Cajun cooking of Louisiana.
>>
>> It still grows wild in Ethiopia and Sudan, just as it did in
>> prehistoric times. Its plants, related to cotton, were carried to
>> India and Egypt where they are still used in cooking oil and as a
>> coffee substitute.
>>
>> Today okra is used commercially as a hidden ingredient: it is the
>> mucilage in catsup that makes it so hard to get out of the bottle.
>>
>> Okay, here's the whole stupid "Song to Okra" by Roy Blount, Jr.:
>> (...)
>> Old Homer Ogletree's so high
>> On okra he keeps lots laid by.
>> He keeps it in a safe he locks up,
>> He eats so much, can't keep his socks up.
>> (Which goes to show it's no misnomer
>> When people call him Okra Homer.
> > Okra!
>>
>> Texas Cooking - Grandma's Cookbook
>> Stewed Okra and Tomatoes
>> Okra is not well-known outside the southern states, which is
>> understandable in that it's a hot-weather crop. Fried okra, of course,
>> is immensely popular and has gained fame even in northern climes, but
>> real okra lovers appreciate its flavor when it is stewed-that is,
> > cooked slowly with a little liquid. Okra can be stewed alone or with
>> other vegetables, most notably tomatoes. Ideally, you should have
>> small pods of fresh okra and big, juicy tomatoes for this recipe to be
>> at its best.
>> (...)
>> People try to be kind to okra by describing its texture as "silky," a
>> euphemism, to be sure. There's no getting around it: okra, especially
>> stewed okra is slimey. There should be another word that does it
>> justice, but I'm afraid the English language is lacking. But I refuse
>> to defend okra. It's delicious-so much so that I enjoy that slimey
>> texture. There's an old one-liner about okra that goes like this: When
>> I was a kid, I ate so much okra I couldn't keep my socks up.
>>
>> Google Books
>> 1981 (?), Atlantic Monthly, pg. 586:
>> 'I never had nary a cent in 1932,' a cropper told me, 'and I et so
>> much okra I slid out of bed.
>>
>> 13 November 1966, Dallas (TX) Morning News, "Tolbert's Texas" by Frank
>> X. Tolbert, section A, pg. 29:
>> IN OKRA, ON Sabana Creek, I was told that the village was so labeled
>> because an early settler and postmaster named Levi McCulloch found the
>> soil was well suited for raising the slippery vegetable, "and in the
>> old days they ate so much okra they nearly slid out of bed."
>>
>> 20 November 1967, Dallas (TX) Morning News, "Tolbert's Texas" by Frank
>> X. Tolbert, section D, pg. 1:
>> But when they pass the stewed okra I say no. Slimy, slick stuff. A
>> popular saying during the early 1930's business depression was: "I ate
>> so much okra I nearly slid out of bed."
>>
>> 13 April 1972, Dallas (TX) Morning News, "On an Okra Recipe and
>> Florida Road Rally" by Frank X. Tolbert, section A, pg. 17:
>> Most cooks don't know how to prepare okra. And it comes out slimy for
>> them. Slimy and slick. In fact there was an old East Texas saying
>> popular during The Great Depression: "I ate so much okra I nearly slid
>> out of bed."
>>
>> 28 June 1977, Dallas (TX) Morning News, "Tolbert's Texas" by Frank X.
>> Tolbert, section D, pg. 3:
>> "I ate so much okra I slid out of bed"
>>
>> 9 July 1977, Dallas (TX) Morning News "Okra Town and Some Poems
>> Praising Okra" by Frank X. Tolbert, section D, pg. 3:
>> MRS. HELEN ROGERS of Arlington sent me a poem about okra by Roy
>> Blount, Jr., published in the July 1976 issue of the august Atlantic
>> Monthly.
>>
>> "I don't even like the stuff-okra that is," Mrs. Rogers wrote. "But in
>> my opinion the poem on okra by Roy Blount Jr. in the Atlantic Monthly
>> is a dilly."
>>
>> I hope that Mr. Blount and the Atlantic Monthly don't mind if I print
>> a few sample verses from the poem called "To Okra":
>>
>> "Old Homer Ogletree's so high on okra he keeps lots laid by...He keeps
>> it in a safe he locks up, he eats so much, can't keep his socks up
>> (Which goes to show it's no misnomer when people call him Okra
>> Homer.)"
>>
>> 17 March 1987, The Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA):
>> "I've eaten so much okra I have to put sand in my bed to keep from
>> slipping out."
>>
>> Google Groups: soc.motss
>> Newsgroups: soc.motss
>> From: szrma... at chip.ucdavis.edu ()
>> Date: Tue, 1 Feb 1994 21:47:16 GMT
>> Local: Tues, Feb 1 1994 5:47 pm
>> Subject: Re: Okra Winfrey (was: I *hate* beets (was Re: Glory Holes))
>>
>> "County Comic" Jerry Clower said he ate so much "slick, slimy boiled
>> okra" as a child that he couldn't keep his socks up.... How
>> appetizing!
>>
>> Google Groups: alt.2eggs.sausage.beans.tomatoes.2toast...
>> Newsgroups: alt.2eggs.sausage.beans.tomatoes.2toast.largetea.cheerslove
>> From: "Nancy"
>> Date: 1998/10/03
>> Subject: Re: WHO LOVES A FULL ENGLISH BREAKFAST???
>>
>> BTW, have you heard the southern comedian who claims to have eaten so
>> much okra as a child that he can't keep his socks up?
>>
>> 17 November 2003, The Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA):
> > John A. Rooney III of Portland, Texas, says, "When I was a kid, my
>> mother fed us so much okra that she had to throw sand in our beds to
>> keep us from sliding out."
>>
>> Johnny Caker's Journal
>> 2005-08-04 - 9:23 p.m.
>> (...)
>> At supper Mom told a joke that her grandfather loved. Did you hear
>> about the fella who loved boiled okra so much that he ate it every
> > day? Well, he couldn't keep his socks up! Get it? Boiled okra is
>> slimey!
>>
>> 30 March 2006, The Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA), pg. B1:
>> T. G. Gaylor offers this from Jerry Clower: "My mama and grandma fed
>> me so much boiled okra that I couldn't keep my socks up."
>>
>> Leon Hale (Houston Chronicle blog)
>> October 03, 2006
>> It's better if you fry it
>> Finicky. There's a curious adjective, but I've been familiar with it a
>> long time because when I was a kid I was often called a finicky eater.
>>
>> I wouldn't eat boiled okra, for instance. It was slick and looked
>> slimy and the sight of people eating the stuff gave me the fantods. Do
>> you really like boiled okra? Ugh.
>> (...)
>> Comments
>> you know what Jerry Clower said about boiled okra? "I ate so much as a
>> kid my socks would not stay up."
>> Posted by: barbara at October 4, 2006 05:58 AM
>>
>> Food Network Forums
>> Re: Really Nice, Easy Chicken and Rice
>> Wed, 25 October 2006 13:43
>>
>> I know I must have already brought this up, but have you heard the
>> comedian (his name escapes me) say, "I ate so much okra as a child I
>> couldn't keep my socks up?" Hahaha! Fried okra that I have had is just
>> breading with a little seedy slime in it!
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>--
>All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
>come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
>-----
> -Sam'l Clemens
>
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