Yesterday as I was cooking dinner in the kitchen (lemon pasta with shrimp, if it helps the setting), my daughter wandered in. “Mom,” she said, “what’s ‘Jiminy Crickets’?”
Admittedly, my first thought was Pinocchio. Isn’t it Pinocchio who has Jiminy Cricket as a buddy? But I answered in the context of something she’d understand: “It’s like ‘Leapin’ lizards,’” I told her, invoking Orphan Annie’s favorite exclamation. Both my kids have seen the movie Annie – both versions — on the order of fifty times, and my daughter has seen the musical live one and a half times.
“Oh,” she said. “Pa always says ‘Jiminy Crickets.’”
I nearly dropped the shrimp. She meant “Jerusalem crickets,” of course. My daughter was speaking Little House to me!
Let me update you. Those who might have followed along at home know that my daughter, who will turn seven next month, has a bit of an independent streak. Combined with her love of reading, this means that I dare not act as if I really, truly want her to read a particular book; that only results in fierce determination to avoid said book at all costs. This was certainly the case with Little House books. I gently suggested, and she ignored. In the end I decided to keep my mouth shut. I figured her time would come.
However, next month we will be going to Wisconsin. And Minnesota. And South Dakota. She’ll be seeing all the places mentioned in the books. Not only do I want her to experience them for all they’re worth, I know my daughter. If she goes to these places and finds out after the fact that she could have read all about Plum Creek and De Smet and Silver Lake before she went on the trip, she will be furious with me. (It won’t matter that I encouraged her. It won’t matter that it was her choice. That’s just how these things go. It is always Mom’s fault.)
On the advice of Beyond Little House’s own Rebecca, I made a suggestion to my daughter that I read On the Banks of Plum Creek to her aloud. To my surprise, she loved this idea. I squashed my cheers of joy and calmly started reading two chapters a night to her.
Then it happened, as I’d known it would. She began reading ahead on her own. The past few days she’s been speeding through, and now she’s only got four or five chapters left.
It was in the midst of this reading session that she decided to ask me about “Jiminy Crickets.” Funny, but when I think about the wonderful, delicious little phrases that say “Little House” unequivocally, “Jerusalem crickets” isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. What is?
The width of a gnat’s eyebrow.
Don’t give your work a lick and a promise.
There’s no great loss without some small gain.
It won’t be noticed on a trotting horse.
Marry in black, you’ll wish yourself back. (And, for that matter, something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue – though that connection has become diluted over the years as I realized just how widespread the phrase is).
Of course, rather like the temporary amnesia that sets in when one enters a video store and can’t recall what on earth she’d like to rent, now that I’m listing these quintissentially-Little House phrases, my mind is … blank.
Heck, my favorite phrases aren’t important. The real question is, what are yours? What phrases distinctly say “Little House” to you?
And of those, what are your favorites?
In my (thick-haired) family, we always used to tease about my sister’s “heavy bang” like Mary Power’s. And we all still say “it’s all the rage in Iowa” about the latest fad items on a regular basis. I often find myself saying that things are just utterly too-too, and my niece’s favorite LH phrase? “Yah.”
“We’ll live like kings!” — Pa
Kim, you beat me to it. That one was the first one that came to mind for me, too. I’ve actually said this to myself when it situations similar to what Laura was in when Ma said it.
“Half Pint.”
Tracy, I think of this phrase a lot, too. Unfortunately, it’s usually after I’ve opened my mouth and said something I should have kept to myself. I wish I could follow Ma’s advice.
“There had never been such a Christmas.”
To me, this is the best line to describe what is so endearing about these stories. The genuine excitement and wonder over getting your own tin cup, a stick of candy and a whole penny of your own. I think of that scene from LHOTP every year on Christmas day.
Kim, I do the same thing! I realize I shouldn’t have said something — or keep myself from saying something — and Ma is in my ear.
Rebecca, “yah” is hilarious. Sky had issues with that too. “It’s spelled wrong!” she said. “And you’re saying it wrong!”
Half Pint of cider half drunk up.
My vanity tag says halfpt
Which brings to mind my great grandmother’s phrases (she’d be 115 this year)
Lawsy Mercy
Pesky
Keep your shirt on
Hold your horses
Missy
I’m not sure if it is considered a saying, but “follow the moon path” seems almost magical to me.
I can picture frozen moonlit Silver Lake and the prairie, covered with snow and shining as far as eyes could see.
Silver Lake is my favorite book!
… and don’t eat all the sugar!
I just remembered that I find myself using Almanzo’s phrase from THGY, “Do what you’ve got a mind to” when I’m driving, particularly to balky, hesitant drivers.
It’s raining fish hooks and hammer handles! and It’s dark as a stack of black cats!
wise as a serpent, gentle as a dove
the rich get their ice in the summer, the poor get their’s in the winter
fine feathers make a fine bird
a dog that will fetch a bone will carry a bone
and I love the way Ma only has to say one of their names (usually ‘Charles’ or ‘Laura’) and they know exactly what she means.
When it pours I often think “fish hooks and hammer handles.” And when someone is talking a blue streak I think of Nellie “My tongue was made to go flippity flop!”
Definitely, “All’s well that ends well.”
My own cup!
Hi, Little House friends!
I, too, have used the favorite ones like: least said, soonest mended and halfpint (a frequent password) I also use “everything evens out, the rich get their ice in summer; the poor get theirs in winter.” Sometimes philosophically and figuratively and sometimes just to remind myself how really blessed our 21st century is when even the least affluent of us can have ice in summer! I am embarrassed to say that my most used one is what Ma wrote in Laura’s autograph book: If wisdom’s ways you wisely seek, five things observe with care, Of whom you speak, to whom you speak and how and when and where.
“Least said, soonest mended.” Ma was so wise.
Yah, yah!