thanks all! I enjoy learning all the local sayings. It's funny how everyone gets so steeped in their own that they assume it's a widespread thing.
Case in point: when my son was a toddler he called music "Dee-Dah." Dunno why he did, but it stuck and became a family expression: "Hey, turn down the dee-dah." Or "let's put on some dee-dah." We were on a road trip last summer (and his girlfriend was along) and we got to discussing how families kind of get their own "language." I used "dee-dah" as an example. Son said "Whhaaaatttt? You mean that's not a saying?" The young man (who is intelligent and went to a perfectly acceptable school, I promise!) has spent years thinking it was a commonplace saying! He has used it with friends!!! Suffice it to say, we just about ran the car off the road laughing. (Us, not him). He still a litlle PO'd--thinks we "betrayed" him but we really thought that at some point he'd twigged to the fact that it was just "our thing." I still think it's hilarious. And now, thx to the gfriend, all of her family and all of his friends now think it's hilarious too!