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

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Fri Oct 19 02:48:33 UTC 2007 

Quite impressive! Have you tried chitterlings with Frank's hot sauce,
yet? Now, there's a taste treat for the ages!

-Wilson

On 10/18/07, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.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:
> >>  ---------------------- Information from the
> >>mail header -----------------------
> >>  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!
> >>
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> >>
> >
> >
> >--
> >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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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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