Pluggers by Rick McKee for August 18, 2020

ouch

I’ve done that hit the wrong nail.

“Rip, rip, runk! Kick ’em in the other knee!”

My take on swearing is that the tune can carry more meaning than the lyrics.

Pluggers were brought up before expletives were invented. (I’m kidding, of course. They’re the ones who invented those words.)

A left handed Plugger, eh?

When I was young my Pop would occasional swear. “Son of a bitch”

At 16 I joined his construction company. That is when I noticed on the job he stepped it up a notch to “Son of a bitch and a half!”

Don’t want to get into trouble with the “Boss.” And I don’t mean Sasha Banks.

Mom would say …. Ahhh Sugar !

I used to work with a Frenchman who had a specific levels of profanity, appropriate to the level of SNAFU. He always began with merde. If things got worse, it became merde de la merde, and this might increase to merde de la bordelle, and culminate with bordelle de la bordelle.

I was once on a dead body call. The old lady had died and fallen down a couple of stairs to a landing with her legs up the steps. While waiting for the M.E., D.A., etc, the local priest showed up. He said “I heard Mrs. So-an-so passed away.” I said “Sadly, yes.” He asked “Where did they take her?” I cocked my thumb over my shoulder to the stairs and said “She’s right there!” The priest spied her body and shouted “GOOD LORD!!” I said to him “That’s pretty good, is that how they teach you to say ‘Oh S#’ in the seminary?”

Guess my Mom wasn’t a Plugger then. My Dad made up for it, however.

Good one! My husband (a true plugger) says “Gosh damn it!”

“Dad rat it.” “Horsefeathers.” “Bull roar.” “Great gallopin globs of greasy grey gravy.” “Holy St Michael and all the angels in Heaven.” “BLAST!!!!!” “Holy St Frances onna gridiron!”……

Playing vintage base ball has taught me many dated but acceptable expressions, such as flapdoodle and thunderation. Watching british tv has taught me some great expressions, such as gormless clack-waffle

My mother would not allow children to say"Gee!" or any variation thereof because she said it was just a sneaky way to use the word “God”.

Not true!

I’m always surprised “Dashiell Hammett!” never caught on as a substitute for swearing.

Never swore until I went on active duty. My wife set up a a can for change but I gave up on it ’cause I ran out right away.

A simple yow or ouch works too.

Having worked in a school district for a while, my go-to phrase was “Curses, Fie, Drat, Maledictions, and Unkind Words!!!!”

Delivered with the right emphasis, it is an excellent replacement for stronger language… (Plus, it makes 5th-graders crack up!)

A skill not passed on to the next generation.. sadly.

Not where I come from, LOL Have you ever heard a Missouri farmer get mad!!!!

Guess I’ll have to turn in my plugger card.

My dad was in the army (worked his way up to Sgt. 1st Class), so learned some colorful language. By the time I was about a year and a half, I had apparently absorbed a lot, even tho I wasn’t speaking a lot. My mom warned my dad to watch his swearing around me. He told her not to worry, I couldn’t even talk yet. Well, one day I backed in to a small kerosene heater and let go a string of swear words that covered his entire vocabulary. Needless to say, he changed his swear words to “God Bless,” “God Bless America,” and “God Bless America, Land That I Love,” depending on the strength of the swearing needed. He used those phrases until the day he died (I was almost 60 by then).

I have to admit that if I die from a scare or a sudden pain, I know what my last word will be.

I think some pluggers (cough) may have a bifurcated approach. When grumbling or cussing under my breath I may say some rather salty things, but the cuss words that are actually spoken in a normal amplitude voice…. those are of a much more mild form.

Aw fudgesicles! Sunken ditch!

That is a nice thing to assume. I assume myself as a “plugger” but my swear words aren’t G-rated. :)

and about the third time. He will throw the hammer somewhere.

I learned to swear from Yosemite Sam I thought “Rasta, Frasta, Dasta” were actual swear words.

Mark Twain: “Profanity provides relief denied even to prayer.”

I only heard my Dad said dad-gummit because my Mother did not allow cursing in the house. If the situation called for stronger words, Dad went through the kitchen and into the attached garage say what he really wanted to say.

For Pete’s Sake!!

As Judy Garland said in the Wizard of Oz “Jiminy Cickets”.

A plugger knows when to use particular words or not.