I remember when ......

[nanaspain]

I remember when local expressions and sayings added a lot of colour to the conversation.  I guess now that, in this region, we are such a diverse group, geographically, we don't use these phrases as widely.  I miss them.
I remember when you could complain 'I was standing there like one of Lewis's' and everyone would know what you meant.    Does anyone else recognise this, and do you know which part of the UK it comes from and what it means?   What phrases do you no longer use?

[Wolfie]

Yes, I remember it well as I used to live just outside Liverpool and passed it every day on the way to work.  It's about the male statue above the door to Lewis' department store just opposite the Adelphi Hotel - some people thought he should have worn his kecks. - a bit rude at the time.  Aaah, the memories.

[Judi_bk]

Manchester?

[BRIMAR]

I certainly remember it.

As far as I am aware it originated in either Liverpool or Manchester.  I certainly remember my Scouse Grandmother saying it.
My Mum told me it meant you were like one of the mannequins in the Lewis's Department Store.
My gran often berated us using that term - I can remember her vividly shouting at my dad to stop standing there like one of Lewis's and get another bucket of coal on the fire.

I used to love listening to my old Gran and here neighbours chatting. They seemed to have an abundance of these quirky sayings and they bring back fond memories of good time when I hear them.

"You'll be waiting till Dick docks and he hasn't got a boat"
If something was going to take a long time or possibly never happen.

"Who knitted your face and dropped a stitch?"
Said when sulking.

"They'd trip over a match with the wood scraped off"
Meaning someone who is very clumsy.




 

[frankie]

I love these!  Please keep them coming....

[nanaspain]

You all guessed what it meant.       Thanks Brimar for the additional ones -  they brought back memories.

Lewis's was a large department store next door to the big Central Station in Liverpool.  And a favourite meeting point for people was under the statue of a naked man on the corner of Lewis's building.  (Commemorated in the line 'we meet under a statue exceedingly bare' in the song 'In my Liverpool Home' by the Spinners)   If you stood there waiting long enough you did end up looking like one of the mannequins in the window.     

When I moved to the Peak District, no-one understood the phrase 'like one of Lewis's', so I adopted the local saying there which I still use today 'like Piffy on a rockbun'.   Which refers again to someone stood around waiting.  Does anyone else use this?

[val]

Yes we used "Piffy on a rockbun". 
My mother used to say "She can sleep on a clothes line without being pegged on" when my sister fell asleep anytime. She was from Yorkshire.

[Meerkat]

  we still say “standing there like one of Lewis’s !
And I can sleep on a clothes line according to my husband!

[nanaspain]

Those of you who recognise 'standing there like one of Lewis's' may also be familiar with 'she can talk like Blackler's parrot' - (she never stops talking !)  The parrot referred to was a giant model one which hung in the stairwell at Blackler's Department Store in Liverpool city centre. 

[BRIMAR]

I also remember my gran saying to her friends and neighbours  "If I don't see you through the week, I'll see you through the window"  which seemingly was her way of saying goodbye. 

[frankie]

   Was the Lewis' store a part of the John Lewis partnership?

[BRIMAR]

No, not part of the John Lewis Partnership, but Selfridges and Miss Selfridges was also part of the Lewis's group

[frankie]

Interesting!