Whistling Girls and Crowing Hens

You may have heard that actions speak louder than words. This is very true, but for myself and for many others, the words and phrases that we grew up with as children have influenced our actions and therefore ring very loudly in our lives. I grew up on a rich diet of words and phrases that shaped and molded me into my adulthood and even until today. You see, I did not grow up influenced by the writings of Voltaire or the paintings of Rembrandt, but I grew up on the words and phrases of a little Southern black woman with a man's middle name-Mamie Floyd. This work is a compilation of stories and sayings from and about Miss Mamie.

Many of these sayings were, in some cases, casually spoken. In other cases, they came as strong admonition as a result of or to prevent some undesirable action. Whatever the reasons, these sayings have become internalized as part of a rich family legacy, affecting my life in quiet, unspoken ways. For example, to this day, I cannot whistle. It is certainly not because I am not physically able to whistle, but like many other African American and Southern women I grew up with, I believed that this was not only unladylike but could possibly affect the way I would turn out as an adult.

I rarely, if ever, talked back to my parents, especially my mother. If I did not find myself in the "middle of next week" or "wake up dead," I knew I at least wanted to live past that day. It is funny. I don't believe anyone really knows where the place called the "middle of next week" is, but few have dared to do what it took to venture there. I am also very thankful for my taste buds. As a matter of fact, long before I studied science in grade school and found out exactly what and where taste buds are, I knew they had to be very special because Mama frequently threatened to slap them out of my mouth. In an age of jargon and political correctness, they are a refreshing oasis from which to draw.