Introduction to "OH, Suzanna"

The following was the introductory article in the series I have named "OH, Suzanna!" It was accidentally deleted, but recreated here. Please enjoy.

OH, SUZANNA!

HI! 

I like the title of this column because mostly, its how my mother has referred to me for almost all of my life. "Oh, Suzanna, how could you? Oh, Suzanna do you ever stop for one minute?  Oh, Suzanna I just don't know what to do with you! Oh, Suzanna do you ever just shut your mouth?" There is also the added spice of the taunts that my brothers and every other smart alec in my life tried: singing the old folk song to me. "Oh Suzanna, don't you cry for me!" To which I would quickly interrupt with the retort: "OH! Don't worry, I WON'T!" At any rate, it so completely describes the state of being me that it just seems natural to name my column "Oh, Suzanna!"

Ok, let me get down to brass tacks. 

Wait a minute.....

What does that really mean anyway? Getting down to brass tacks. Does anyone even have any brass tacks lying around anymore? If you do you had better go pick them up, you could hurt yourself. I think my grandmother's plastic covered sofas from the 1960's had brass tacks, I can't be sure though because of the memory of the textured plastic covers still gives me PTSD. Sigh.....

OH, Suzanna you did it AGAIN! Off the track and derailed that thought.

Anyway, what I was trying to get to before I so rudely interrupted myself was: Where did all these funny little expression come from that we use? As a part of my quest to bring the Whitewater Valley culture to the masses I guess I have to introduce the idea of settler culture. So to begin with I will connect the present to the past with some expressions we use today that the settlers either created or used in their day and where the expression supposedly originated. I will call this article “Stuff Settlers Said.”

Enjoy!

-Suzanna Johnson