"I ate so much okra I slid out of bed!" (1930s? East Texas?)

Fri Oct 19 00:24:49 UTC 2007

At 10:10 PM -0300 10/18/07, David A. Daniel wrote:
>God regards okra with abomination. Okra, as also he who eats okra, is
>abominated by God. Slime, disgust, revulsion and putrefaction are all states
>of being associated with the existence, presence, ingestion of okra.
>DAD

OK, no okratinis for you.  Even if you beg.

LH

>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of
>Laurence Horn
>Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2007 8:47 PM
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Re: "I ate so much okra I slid out of bed!" (1930s? East Texas?)
>
>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:
>-----
>>>
>>>   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
>>
>>------------------------------------------------------------
>>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
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