Bad Manners and Brimstone

I'm originally from the New York area and I also use "Not for nothin'" mostly ironically, though. It's a hard expression to explain. Basically, it translates to "no kidding! this is really true."

I've always thought of it as a version of "Just sayin'".

Quote from: Snowfire on October 21, 2021, 10:14:51 pm

Bass ackwards was common in our house.

Someone has their tail over the dashboard. - Reference to horse & buggy days, if the horse got it's tail over the dash of the buggy, unhappiness was the result.

Couldn't stop a pig in a passage. - referring to someone who was very bowlegged

I may remember more later...

Having their tail over the dashboard always meant conceited or full of oneself whenever I've heard it.  But it's been awhile.

I got curious, so I went googling:

From an analysis of the novel All the King's Men http://www.people.vcu.edu/~bmangum/AKMone.html

36.      10.26–27     keep his tail over the dashboard

When horses properly pulled wagons at a relatively fast speed, when the process was persisting correctly, they kept their heads up and their tails over the dashboard of the wagon they pulled.

From a compilation of slang and idiom from local newspapers

Corpus Christi Coastal Bend South Texas news, information, events ...
... A cowboy in high spirits had his tail over the dashboard. A hungry cowboy
was narrow at the equator. A tough customer was known as a curly wolf. ...
www.caller.com/ccct/opinion_columnists/article/ 0,1641,CCCT_843_2230308,00.html - 33k - Cached - Similar pages

From a list of Texas cowboy slang
https://www.hayabusa.org/forum/threads/texas-cowboy-lingo.56682/

A depressed cowhand was down in his boots or had his tail over the dashboard.

 from a NYTimes story referencing the novel All the King's Men
https://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/31/books/critic-s-notebook-political-novels-for-all-seasons-and-for-one-season.html
A character is speaking about someone who's been arrested because he killed a man in a "fahr fight."

''Hit wuz fahr and squahr, but he had a leetle bad luck. He stobbed the feller and he died.''

''Tough tiddy. Tried yet?''

''Not yit.''

''Tough tiddy.''

''I ain't complainen. Hit wuz fit fahr and squahr.''

''Glad to seen you. Tell your boy to keep his tail over the dashboard.''

From context, it seems like a word of encouragement--"tell your friend in jail to keep his chin up."



and a Google Answers thread on that very phrase from that same novel:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview/id/476367.html

My grandpa used this phrase occasionally. It is a message of
encouragement, roughly equivalent to "Keep a stiff upper lip, "Keep
your chin up," or "Don't worry, be happy." At least that's what it
meant in Oklahoma, where I grew up. When I lived in Tennessee, I once
heard this used in an opposite sense: "Don't get your tail over the
dashboard," with the obvious meaning "Don't get all het up" or "Don't
get your panties in a bunch."

Here's a plausible explanation of the phrase's origin, from a newsgroup post:

"My father still uses 'Head up and tail over the dashboard' to
describe something that is going very well or in response to 'How are
you?' He once told me that the part of a wagon where the driver puts
his feet is called the dashboard.  When a wagon is being pulled by a
horse at a steady, quick pace, the horse is said to have his 'head up
and tail over the dashboard'."

Post from alt.genealogy newsgroup (there are several links there with different meanings)
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/alt.genealogy/msg/a7526c1764a646b1

This newsgroup post gives the contrary meaning, citing it as an East
Texas regionalism:

"When I moved from Louisiana to Houston my immediate boss was a
pixie-like woman from East Texas.  I learned some very neat
regionalisms from her.

Go on back to your rat killing (said after you had interrupted someone
who  was doing something, didn't matter what, and you were finished)

Don't get your tail over the dashboard - don't get upset."

Post from bit.listserv.dorothyl
http://groups-beta.google.com/group/bit.listserv.dorothyl/msg/b878c374ce52a8d7?dmode=source

In context, it seems to me that the excerpts from "All the King's Men"
carry a meaning similar to my grandpa's: "Don't let anything get you
down."

Here is a different meaning, from another compilation of idioms/sayings
https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2015/sep/09/the-good-word-20150909/

Chuck Anderson, meanwhile, sent a few phrases his momma used to say, including: "'He got his tail over the dashboard,' meaning he got all huffed up over something.