"I ate so much okra I slid out of bed!" (1930s? East Texas?)
Laurence Horn
laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Fri Oct 19 03:12:50 UTC 2007
At 10:48 PM -0400 10/18/07, Wilson Gray wrote:
>Quite impressive! Have you tried chitterlings with Frank's hot sauce,
>yet? Now, there's a taste treat for the ages!
>
>-Wilson
The local "soul food" place near campus here, Sandra's
(http://www.sandrasplace.com), cooks up an impressive mess o'
chitlins on Fridays, and I always go for plenty of hot sauce,
although I don't think it's Frank's per se. And the nice thing is
that you can choose two sides, one of which of course must be fried
okra. (The tough decision is sweet potato fries vs. collards.)
LH
>
>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!
>> >>
>> >> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> >> 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
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> 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
------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
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