This is a quaint collection of by-words, old sayings, phrases, and stories that are unique for the most part to a particular section of Tennessee. Most of the stories and by-words are from a bygone day, a time when children attended one-teacher schools, when there were very few automobiles; an era when it was a rarity to see an airplane fly across the sky, and upon being heard, children would race out of the schoolhouse to get a glimpse of it.

The reader should be aware that there are words in this collection of sayings, such as splouzed (rhyme with blouse), scrouged (rhyme with gouged), and scrootch (rhyme with pooch) which were attempts by the author to capture correct phonetic sounds of the words, since many of these words might never have been written down.

This collection of sayings, many of which have faded into non-usage, but all of which bring back fond memories, is written in honor of the author's father, Booz Garrett, 2/12/1896-7/16/1962, a decorated veteran of WWI and truly a gentle man.