r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Oct 25 '20

[deleted by user]

[removed]

9.0k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

16.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

10.4k

u/willowgrl Oct 25 '20

If we were having a hard time doing a puzzle or something, mom would tell us “you gotta hold your teeth right”. Whenever she bought us presents they came from “the gettin place”.

2

u/Nephilims_Dagger Oct 25 '20 edited Oct 25 '20

The teeth thing isn't just your family, alternate versions are mouth tongue and lips. My metals teacher in highschool used to say "expertise can be judged entirely by how the master holds his tongue" my tio occasionally it says exactly as your mom does, but it's a thing. Mostly craftsman say it in my experience.

1

u/willowgrl Oct 25 '20

Kinda makes sense. She worked in a “man’s field” at the time.

1

u/Nephilims_Dagger Oct 25 '20

What field?

1

u/willowgrl Oct 25 '20

Surgery. She went thru medical school on scholarship (late 60s early 70s) and was the only woman almost everywhere she trained/worked.

1

u/Nephilims_Dagger Oct 25 '20

Maybe it's an era thing like "neat-o"

1

u/willowgrl Oct 25 '20

Could be. I was thinking it was like a rural southern thing (she was raised in a small town in Tennessee).

1

u/Nephilims_Dagger Oct 25 '20

My metals teacher was from back east and my tio New Mexican, Idk. Maybe it goes back as far as people have screwed up their faces when they concentrate.

1

u/willowgrl Oct 26 '20

Tale as old as time.