And I have used this page's title often-feeling quite sure I knew exactly what it meant. It's a more conditional statement of intent than come hell or high water. Pot callin the kettle black. Instead of "Well, I swear," Southerners have adopted a geographically inspired alternative. The distinct English dialect of the American South, which has a close relationship with Black English (African American Vernacular English), is fascinatingand plenty lively. No Bigger Than a Minnow in a Fishing Pond, A Rooster One Day and A Feather Duster the Next, If You Know These Sayings, You Definitely Grew Up in the South, Only Real Southerners Know the Meaning of "Putting On the Dog", Things Only Southern Moms Say To Their Daughters, Things Only Southerners Say When It Snows. The saying "God willing and the Creek don't rise." Came from those traveling west in the OLD DAYS. Lord Willing and the creek don't rise - English for Students "The Good Lord willing and the 'creek' don't rise" is just one of them. Signed in November, 1785, A Treaty With the Cherokee (the technical name of the Treaty of Hopewell) created the first rift between theCherokee Nationand the Chickamauga Cherokee that would not end until the Chickamauga went West following the Revolt of the Young Chiefs. Powered by Discourse, best viewed with JavaScript enabled, origin of phrase - "if the creek don't rise". Marty Stuart places the words "If the Good Lord's willin' and the creek don't rise, we'll see you in the mornin'." All the ones I know from growin up : r/ShitSouthernersSay I was reading a post on one of the West Virginia pages that I follow in which a person referenced God willing and the creeks dont rise. in reference to rain and floods. 'Cause everything's fine, God, I wish it were . But did he really say the words quoted or was a phrase morphed to include him as the author? Copyright Michael Quinion, 1996. It was a big old chunk of a book, so only a couple of the kids including myself read it. TOP 25 QUOTES BY JOHN WAYNE (of 133) | A-Z Quotes It is sometimes thought that the word "Creek" instead refers to the Creek Indians, but this is unlikely. From another source Some historians attribute Benjamin Hawkins as having been the first person to ever say these words and he did so in a letter to the President of the United States. With a colorful cast of characters and a flair for the Southern Gothic, If the Creek Don't Rise is a debut novel bursting with heart, honesty, and homegrown grit. In the 1900s, the word evolved, taking on a Southern spin as well as new meanings such as "courage" and "get-up-and-go.". No bigger than a minnow in a fishing pond is as tiny as can be. Where did this contraction, popular in both African American English and Southern American English, come from? We didnt. A sister who is afraid of losing her brother and Sadie's grandmother and aunt, all tell their stories adding to Sadie's own. The expression make groceries is a translation of the French faire son march (to do ones market shopping). No matter where you go in Kentucky, the people often have some colorful expressions. Theres probably a connection between eternal damnation and tarnation. The History And Traditions That Make Hanukkah Light Up, Examples Of Ableist Language You May Not Realize Youre Using, Winter 2023 New Words: Everything, Everywhere, All At Once, Fall In Love With 14 Captivating Valentines Day Words, Rizz And 7 Other Slang Trends That Explain The Internet In 2023, Win With Qi And This List Of Our Best Scrabble Words, We Had ChatGPT Coin Nonsense PhrasesAnd Then We Defined Them, Surprise! It is a quintessential Southern phrase, said by friends and family on porches and in rocking chairs all across the South. the creek don't rise " is an American slang expression implying strong intentions subject to complete frustration by uncommon but not unforeseeable events. Its a more conditional statement of intent than come hell or high water. Over yonder past the cotton field. Sign up for writing inspiration in your email, , Scarlett OHara says: I do declare, Frank Kennedy, if you dont look dashing with that new set of whiskers!, The distinct English dialect of the American South, which has a close relationship with Black English (African American Vernacular English), is fascinatingand plenty lively. Lyndon Johnsons wife Lady Bird was fond of the phrase, and she wasnt one to cast aspersions on native Americans. The catchphrase itself was associated with Hank Williams. And Lord have mercy, wait till you meet Birdie with her gamy birds-nest hairdo and top notch fine feathered companion Samuel.and all his buddies. Take a look at some of our favorite Southern sayings that we just couldn't live without. Some say farmers used to dunk their hens when they got broody. Although he admits when the rain starts to fall, it makes him a little nervous. Positive thinking, Southern style. But in following verses the rhyme changes through "creeks don't rise", "creek stay low", back to "creeks don't rise". With a colorful cast of characters and a flair for the Southern Gothic, If the Creek Don't Rise is a debut novel bursting with heart, honesty, and homegrown grit. In response to a request that he return to Washington D.C., he wrote, "God willing and the Creek don't rise." Thats a mouthful, but we lumped these all together because they are allsubstitutes for (God) d*mn it. A: "Do you reckon we'll have enough from this harvest to make ends meet?" B: "God willing and the creek don't rise." Apparently Carter had a great many pills, because the phrase found its way into the Southern vocabulary. Wheres my blasted phone?. Baines Creek, high up in the Appalachian mountain, a poor place filled with impoverished people, a place where moonshine is king. Farmers know that if you do something 'til the cows come home, it's going to take all day. Hang onto both and 'tough it out'. Historians and etymologists may cringe, but the modern usage of Lord willin and the creek (or crick) dont rise is about the stream, not the Creek tribe. by Leah Weiss. Eli is the backbone of the community; all he wants is a better life for the people of Baines Creek evidenced by the succession of teachers he has procured.and been scared off, and his scheming troublemaking spinster of a sister Prudence who "don't like nobody" doesn't help matters any, but when the giant 6' 2" Kate Shaw arrives, wellthat's another story. If you hear this one, it's best to slow down. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Note that the Creek Nation(s) did not "rise" at all. God Willing and the Creek Don't Rise | Native Heritage Project What Grandma says when you pull in the driveway, pop out of the car, and come running. Kicked in the gut and sucker punched with one of the best books I have ever read. In other words, Ill make it to Grandmas if the indians dont go on the warpath. If you've read the book summary, you already know Sadie Blue lives with a devil of a man, but she's not the only one who has lived with a wife beater of a husband. The written record dates the saying from about the middle of the nineteenth century. And yes, I have heard the music of this culture and watched the dancing. The lyrics play on the expression Lord willing and the creek don't rise, which is thought to originate from Alabama. It may take the form of real or mock dialect, in variations like " Lor' willin' an' th' crick don' rise.". You might say cocola. The thing isI read one that I have never stopped thinking about. Stop right there! Johnny Cash had a hit with the song If The Good Lords Willing, and Hank Williams Jr. titled his song If the Good Lords Willin (And The Creeks Dont Rise).. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. No, we don't mean you need to go fix your hair. Weiss has spun me upside down in this backward county in the Appalachian mountains and made a southerner out of me. If the Creek Don't Rise: Tales From the South Kindle Edition Is this derivation correct? The resulting warfare and predictable civilian losses in the South reportedly gave rise (using the Southern frontier penchant for willin as opposed to the educated willing) to the phrase which was then likely mistakenly attributed to Hawkins due to his Native American connections. It can also be the opening to striking a bargain, sharing a strongly held opinion, or offering a piece of advice you may or may not want to hear. !, Reckon has ancestry tracing all the way back to the 1000s (and maybe older still), and originally means to count, calculate.. If the good Lord's willin and the creek don't rise. Well, I found it. It completely nailed the "mountain living" that I remembered my grandmother talking about. Southerners adopted this phrase wholeheartedly from its early usages in 1700s England and Scotland (where it meant "common sense"). Another publication, Proceedings of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge Jurisdiction, Volumes 88-89, coins the phrase: if the Lord is willing and the creek dont fire, we will so do. The first big battles in the Creek War were, indeed, attacks on white settlements, but it was not a matter of an uprising that threatened settlers, rather it was an outbreak of war between two armed groups in which whites and Indians sought each other out. Learn how your comment data is processed. Yes, I had heard of the Appalachians and how the culture spreads along those mountains over more than a dozen States. from The New York Times: If there is a good state of the world in 2021 the Lord willing and the creek don't rise everyone and all Blue Dogs in office needs to recognize . "Lord willing and the creek don't rise" is a sort of backwoods phrase that has the same meaning, but is more folksy and less devoted. In his reply, he was said to have written, God willing and the Creek dont rise. Hardy citizens awoken by first responders urging evacuation When you arrive on the banks of the fishing pond on Saturday mornings, you're hoping for a good catchenough big catfish and bream to fry up for the family on Saturday night. January 2021: Hat tip to Maria whonotes that the collection of Benjamin Hawkinss letters has now been digitized and can be read at this link. Let me love you again, give me one more try. Leah Weiss introduces her extraordinary characters as chapters unfold and each one has their own peculiarity. Share. Andrew Jackson sent a request for reinforcements before the Battle Of New Orleans. I was just hoping for something more concrete about the real origin. Wow! If you think you can't, you won't be able to accomplish something, but if you think you can, you'll succeed. You will have spotted that neither of these capitalises creek, which suggests they didnt have the Creek people in mind. The request was to a general that had troops near Horseshoe Bend Alabama, protecting settlers against a Creek Indian uprising. The "creek don't rise" phrase is now sometimes credited to this time of unrest and displacement. A different style for the story telling in this as we hear from many of the people in this town and Sadie Blues own story is woven through the fabric of theirs. Cookies and privacy In his response, he was said to write, God willing and the Creek dont rise. Because he capitalized the word Creek it is deduced that he was referring to the Creek Indian tribe and not a body of water. During the early days of the War of 1812, one party of Creek marched north and joined the Indians fighting in Ohio and Michigan, participating in the River Raisin Massacre. The Problem with Saying, "Lord Willing and the Creek Don't Rise" A rising creek could spell trouble, as it can lead to flooding and other issues. (I would not be surprised to discover that the last contributor on your first link is none other than our own samclem.). You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. The swear-word equivalent would be something along the lines of No sh*t!I declare may have come from an English oath (the sworn proclamation kind) declaring that no foreign parties have power to subvert the Crown. Dylan LeBlanc - If The Creek Don't Rise Lyrics | Genius Lyrics Now, she admits to saying this to her children. What in tarnation? 'Creek don't rise' is a phrase with possibly more than one meaning Other words sites Oh, how I loved this story - I simply didnt want it to end! The Lafayette gazette (Louisiana), 3 Nov. 1894. As was the case with Dr Mattox, the remark is routinely attributed to first being said by Benjamin Hawkins. Did you know the saying God willing and the Creek dont rise was in reference to the Creek Indians and not a body of water? The exact tranlation might be, 'If God is willing, and there isn't a flood that would prevent us from meeting again next week'. If the Creek Don't Rise by Leah Weiss | Goodreads Region 8 News on Twitter: ""You've heard that old saying, 'I'll be Unarguable Southern criticism. It turns out that the phrase was written by Benjamin Hawkins in the late 18th century. If you answered soda, you probably hail from either coast or some patches around St. Louis or Milwaukee.Pop lovers congregate mostly in the Midwest and western states. Look up Lord willing and the creek don't rise in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. We've had a lot of delays, but God willing and the creek don't rise, we should have the house finished before winter. This article about the English language is a stub. It seems this saying is a favorite expression of country singers. 132 Copy quote. These skies can darken at a moment's notice, and summer afternoons often see winds churning and heavy rain clouds blowing in to cool that Southern summer heat. Copy furnished by Net Galley for the price of a review. I agree that the Indian origin sounds unlikely. HARDY, Ark. You gonna let him break your spirit, too? We admit that we've heard this Southernism more than once. 24 of 30. A strikingly sincere portrait of a town and its buried secrets from an outstanding new voice in southern fiction. When you're exhausted in an I'm-so-beat-I-can't-go-on kind of way, you're definitely worn slap out. This is our creative way of saying that you shouldn't crow like a rooster about your wealth and belonging today, because it could all disappear tomorrow. At the same time there is some evidence that the creation of Fort Deposit (Fort Deposite) in Georgia was a cause of concern in that munitions and arms were stockpiled. Maybe not all dogs were made for hunting some prefer the warmth of a fireplace and the comfort of your lap. Maya Rodale is a best-selling romance author. Someone once said that when you visit the South, you need a translator. In a letter to the Commander in Chief, Hawkins stated that he would return to the nations capital, God willing and the Creek dont rise., Hawkins, college-educated and a well-written man would never have made a grammatical error, so the capitalization of Creek is the only way the phrase could make sense and the reference is not to a creek, but The Creek Indian Nation. So, if during the time of Benjamin Hawkins life, the Creek Indians were experiencing the longest period of peace, why would he fear that they would rise. As they returned home, some of them also killed some settlers in the Ohio valley. Over yonder toward the water tower. (the good) Lord willing and the creek don't rise - TheFreeDictionary.com Given that many small farm streams were crossed without bridges, which worked find most of the time, a swollen stream would cause problems. I doubt it will ever be possible to prove the source of some of these old sayings,but they sure are alot of funThis post set me a thinkin bout some things we grew up saying that we took from our eldersfor example when one is astonished you say Oh my Stars! Or when you havent seen someone in awhile you say I aint seen Hide nor Hair of em since..and there was plenty of times I was toldquit rootin around an causin such a ruckass!usually refering to me being in Granmas gardenand one can never forget the simpleSkeedaddle! Now the devil may knowWhere those sayings come from. If the creek dont rise was a whimsical way of saying that the speaker would carry out some task provided that no figurative obstacle were put in his path. If you think you can't, you won't be able to accomplish something, but if you think you can, you'll succeed. A true Southern tradition. We like to read this as one of the greatest Southern encouragements, but, like most of these phrases, you can use it however you'd like. Though youre likely to hear Southernisms such as. Im a longtime admirer of your calm demeanor and encyclopedic knowledge. It is a modern error to presume that "the creek don't rise" is a grammatical error, so the fact that a speaker in the past was college educated would not be an argument against his having used the phrase. Her grandmother Gladys tells us of her awful past ridden with the drunkenness and senseless abuse. If The Creek Don't Rise. This book reminds me of that. If the Creek Don't Rise Quotes Showing 1-14 of 14 "Times like these I wonder if I ever been happy. 30 Phrases Only Southerners Use If the creek rises, travel will be impossible and Ill never get to Grannys. Hawkins, college-educated and a well-written man would never have made a grammatical error, so the capitalization of Creek is the only way the phrase could make sense. Accents vary by regionand sometimes even city to city. Often said as Lord willing and the creek dont rise, this expression means, with a little bit of luck and no unexpected problems, things should work out. Though youre likely to hear Southernisms such as hold your horses and pretty as a peach nationwide, youll likely only hear the following from a true Southerner. A friend of mine told me to shoot first and ask questions later. By date order (spelling and titling may vary): Not to be confused with the Ray LaMontagne album, If the Good Lord's Willing and the Creek Don't Rise, Vladimir Bogdanov, Chris Woodstra, Stephen Thomas Erlewine All Music Guide to Country 0879307609 2003 Page 629 Jerry Reed "Here I Am collects his complete recordings for Capitol (30 songs), most of which were originals. My favorite variant is the phrase Hank Williams Sr. sometimes used to end his shows: "Lord willin' and the creek don't rise, we'll see you before long." - MT_Head. All rights reserved.This page URL: http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-god1.htmLast modified: 25 February 2012. If the Creek Don't Rise: A Novel - Leah Weiss - Google Books It presumably evokes occasional and unpredictably extreme rainfall in Appalachia, that has historically isolated one rural neighborhood or another temporarily inaccessible on several or many occasions. "If God so wills, and as long as intense rain does not wash away bridges or parts of dirt roads, or cover roads too deeply for safely following them." New words appear; old ones fall out of use or alter their meanings. Unlike the United States Postal Service, whose motto proclaims "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night" will keep them from their routes, sometimes a Southern visit is thwarted by a rising creek or other unexpected bump in the road. Those who live on Valley Drive along the Spring River in Hardy awoke around 3 Friday morning to first responders urging them to leave their homes due to rising water.
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