quotations that have become part of our lives here

“I know your trick!” Troy G.

The story behind this: My daughter had her friend Mechelle over to spend the night. Mechelle's little brother (maybe four years old) came too, and was lying in bed between them. They were doing their best to get him to sleep so they could have some "girl talk". As they sang lullabies and so forth and his eyes got heavy, he said to them, "I know your trick. You're trying to make me go to sleep so you can kiss me."

Cliff and I find many occasions to say, "I know your trick!"

“If I worried as much as you, I’d have warts all over my body.”
David B.

When David said this, Cliff said, "What?"

Dead serious, David answered, "Worrywarts!"

Cliff was manager of the staff at a butcher shop. One of his employees, not the brightest candle on the cake, took offense at Cliff's trying to get the most from his crew. He said, "If I worried as much as you do, I'd have warts all over my body."

What makes this so funny is, the man really was dead serious. He honestly thought you'd get warts if you worried too much.


“I hate people; people make me sick.” Cliff’s dad

No explanation needed; Elwood meant it. I sometimes quote him. Don't we all have those days?

“I told you I was sick!” Cliff’s dad, when he found out he had pancreatic cancer.

Yep, if either of us goes to the doctor and the doctor finds something wrong, this is what we say.

“You pitched your tent toward Sodom.” My mom to me, when I married Cliff.

Look it up in the Old Testament and you'll figure out my mom didn't think much of Cliff or his family. She learned to love him, though.

I don't use this quote much.

“Tor, Bunkie.” My son.

We didn't get out much when our son was a toddler, so going to the grocery store was a big deal to him. Using words from some commercial that was popular around 1968, Cliff would say, "Do you want to go to the store, Bunkie? Is that what's the matter?"

And Jimmy would answer excitedly, "Tor, Bunkie!"

“It’s all good.” “They don’t know who they’re messing with.” “I wonder what the poor folks are doing?” Pat M.

I love my positive-thinking brother-in-law, and we quote him often.

“That don’t make her all bad.”

Some guy that worked with Cliff at the butcher shop hit the bar for a couple hours after work, every night. If you questioned some woman's morality, no matter how wild her escapades or how dark her past, he'd say, "That don't make her all bad."

“I’m gonna give you the Uncle Buck special.” From the movie, "Myra Breckinridge"

Cliff, to me. Don’t ask. Let's not go there.

“Gotta have it!” Tim G.

Tim's a good friend of ours who believes he can do anything he sets his mind to; if he has to spend lots of money to get to his goal, this is what he says.

So it's what Cliff and I say to one another when we want something that's too expensive when we know we're going to buy it anyhow.

Does your family have special quotes from people you've known?