I believe that it is time for us to have another adventure in country speak. Country speak is a variation of the English language. It is a language unto itself. The subject for today’s lesson in country speak is “lick.” That word is hardly ever conjugated because to do so would lead you astray. If you were to find a dictionary that includes the word “lick,” you might find along about the fourth or fifth definition it is “to strike a blow” or “to strike something.” My experience is totally on striking a blow, which is called “a lick.” Also there is a variation on licking a stamp or “taking a licking” as from one’s parents.
In the winter of 1929, my father was laid off from his job at the Evans-Howard Refractory Company. It made heavy-duty pipes and the bricks that would be used in kilns and high-temperature situations. Being laid off in 1930 was a major proposition. There simply were no jobs available anywhere. As winter approached, my father took the back seat out of his Studebaker and we drove to a nearby wooded area where there were trees to be felled. Each day my father picked me up after school and we would go to the wooded area to cut the trees for use in heating our home.
Winters in eastern Missouri are not to be trifled with. We needed coal to heat the house. In palmier days, my mother would simply stop the Polar Wave driver and tell him that he should bring a load of coal. But these were not palmier days. There was a depression on and if we did not find a means to heat the house, I suppose that we may have had cases of frostbite.
So every day after school, my father would bring by the school a change of clothes and we would go to the wooded area. Once a tree is felled, it is necessary to cut it into lengths of about two feet. My father would produce a two-man saw and we would cut it into appropriate lengths. Then it was necessary to split the wood. My father and I had a large series of wedges that were used for splitting the wood. I must say that while I would have preferred to have been somewhere else, splitting the wood with an eight-pound mallet gave me a head start on developing a pair of shoulders. My father used a twelve-pound mallet but eight pounds was quite enough for me.
Now we come to the conclusion of country speak. My father used country speak exclusively. When there was a difficult piece of wood to be split, my father would say, “I reckon you better give that another lick.” When used in this sense, a “lick” referred to another blow.
We don’t often hear the words “lick” or “reckon” these days. But I see absolutely nothing wrong with their use in saying, “I reckon you better give that one another lick.”
Burning the wood in a furnace had some advantages and some disadvantages. For example, the ashes of the burnt wood were much lighter than those of coal. On the other hand, the fire built of wood would tend to, as my parents would say, “peter out” before daybreak. But I was the person who had to haul the ashes out of the furnace to take them to a walkway that we had constructed to get to the streetcar. If I had my choice, I would say to use the wood to heat your home because that produces a lighter ash content.
And don’t forget the term “licking.” It was most often heard as “If I got a licking at school, I could expect another licking at home.” So you see, there are several reasons to use the word lick, exclusive of just country speak.
But be that as it may, this essay is about the term “lick.” It seems to me that there is some poetic line saying, “I reckon you better give that one another lick.” As I told you, I understand country speak precisely but if terms like this keep showing up, I may even try to use country speak once in a while.
E. E. CARR
July 18, 2012
Essay 679
~~~
Commentary today has been outsourced to a 92-year-old man named Tom Scandlyn. View his reply to this and other “country speak” essays here.
For my part, after the recent writings I expected this essay to be a good bit more vulgar than it was. I am not sure if I am relieved or disappointed, though I may actually lean somewhat toward the latter.