Spanish:  Un clavo saca otro clavo.

Translation:  One nail drives out the other nail.

This dicho is often used in areas of failed romance like the “there are other fish in the sea” expression.  I’ve also heard it used as an alternative to the “hair of the dog” saying.

It is also appropriate as the New Year draws closer and spurs reflection on the past and hopes for the future.  Many of us are hoping for a better year than last year.  So to those of you who need a better year, take this dicho to heart, and embrace this New Year as an opportunity to drive out any bad tastes from the last year and start anew.

Did you grow up hearing Mexican dichos or sayings/proverbs?

Dicho in Spanish:

Ande yo caliente y riase la gente

Dicho in English:

As long as I am warm, let people laugh

I thought this was a good one for this morning (43 degrees at 10:46 a.m.).  I am totally prepared to live the entire year in shorts, flip-flops, and T-shirts.  I used to be successful at that until I got older and could feel the cold seeping into my aging bones.  Now cold weather throws me into a state of confusion, clothing-wise.

Earlier this morning I took my son to school.  It was much colder.  I was wearing brown doggers (cheap version of crocs) with white socks.  When I was young I swore I would NEVER wear socks with sandals.  Oh well.  Funny how that happens.

I threw on some jeans that were still in a suitcase from a Vegas trip months ago that had questionable cleanliness (the jeans, not the trip).  I topped that with two short-sleeved shirts never meant to be layered or worn in the winter – one a T-shirt and the other a gauzy summery shirt with beading on the V neckline.

I also wore a “jacket.”  I’m not sure if the “jacket” qualifies as such.  It’s more decorative than functional.  Something only sold in the summer to people who live in hot deserts for about $10.  Plus it still had some dog blood on the white fringe from when a dog claw got clipped too close this weekend and tons of dog hair all over it’s dark navy-blue fuzziness (from hugging the dog all night to make up for the claw).

That was my only choice since I pretty much own two jackets.  The decorative one and one suitable for running a dog sled race in Alaska that I bought 8 years ago when I was freezing my gluteus maximus off in NY City when the decorative one failed to protect me against a NY winter.  Let me tell you, exiting the airport there was quite a shocker for this native Tucsonan!  It’s hard to move my arms and steer the car in my second jacket, and it wasn’t THAT cold yet, so it wasn’t an option.

Because I was thrown for a loop by the cold weather, that meant no time for make-up and hair shoved into a very messy, awkward pony tail.  When I ran into Circle K, I looked down at my shoes and realized they were not only dirty and stained from gardening but they didn’t match either.  The white socks only made the fact that one shoe had circular holes and the other rectangular more obvious.  Oh well, I thought, at least I’m warm.  It could have been worse – I could have worn my black shiny dress shoes with thick white athletic socks.

When I arrived at the school, I saw most of the other parents were totally pulled together with cool-looking jackets, mittens, hats, winter shoes.  Some even had bags that matched their shoes or matching hat, scarf and mitten combos.  Everything looked shiny and new.  No doubt many of them come from far off lands where snow is common this time of year and they have acquired the skills of maintaining winter and summer wardrobes and switching out clothes at the appropriate times.

For me putting winter clothes in storage means folding a couple sweaters and putting them on a high closet shelf.  But then when winter rolls around, they have a layer of very fine dust and moth holes (I have a swamp cooler and a poorly sealed house), and  I don’t even want to touch them.  I probably have sweaters that have sat up there for over 15 years.  So then I have to resort to my summer gear until I get into the swing of things (don’t worry, I usually hit my stride by spring).  Yes, I’ll incorporate plastic bags into my storage routine at the end of the season – just like I said I would do last year.

At the school I thought, oh screw it, let them laugh as I trudged my son to the gate (don’t worry he had a new jacket and matching hat and mittens – purchased last night).  I’m warm and that’s all that matters.  So right now when I sat down and saw this dicho in my dicho files, I thought it was perfect for today.  “I’m warm, go ahead and laugh.”

It brings back memories of my grandma wearing her dark dress sandals with white athletic socks and either a mumu-type dress or a bright polyester outfit with a big lumpy 70′s sweater thrown over it.  When I would laugh at her, she didn’t care and would say, “Ay yay yay, que Betty Jo” which pretty much means “Oh my gosh, that Betty Jo.”

Of course this dicho applies to much more than just the literal meaning and can be used in many situations.  I’m sure you get the drift if you think about it.

Enjoy.  I’m off to hunt down the matching shoe mates, scrub them down and wash my jacket and jeans in time for pick-up.  I may be ghetto and nerdly but at least it can be relatively clean ghetto nerd style. 

See a list of all my dicho posts here.

Do you have dichos to share?  If so, email them to comments@bjaysplace.com.

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Did you grow up hearing Mexican dichos or sayings/proverbs?

Here is the 5th installment of dichos or mexican proverbs and sayings.

Dicho in Spanish:

No cuando sale el sol calienta, si no cuando va subiendo.

Dicho in English:

The sun does not heat at sunrise, but later as it rises.

This was said to someone who is impatient and wants quick results.

Does this still apply today to the majority of the public?  Oh how times have changed.  Today we want everything fast.  Fast food, fast communication, fast cars, fast results…  So many things have changed from when I was growing up, and I admit I’ve become pretty spoiled.

I can get food almost instantly from the microwave and pay taxes and car registrations online.   I haven’t had to go to the library often or call and wait for answers from the Historical Society to find answers to questions because so much can be found online at our fingertips.  This is really convenient, but is it good for us?

When I was growing up I would watch my grandma do her laundry.  She would prewash with a scrubbing board.  Then she’d put the clothes into a wringer washer and wait.  When it was done, she would put every item through the wringer.  Then she’d carry her heavy basket of wet clothes out to the clothesline where she would then hang it all up with clothespins and wait for the sun to dry them.  Now we have washers and dryers where you just have to toss the clothes in with some product.  I don’t even like to do that.  Do you?  Many of us have developed the different piles of “worn but can’t tell,” “kinda dirty,” and “radioactive pick up with tongs” laundry to cut down on the trips to the laundry room.  Grandma washed everything.  I claim I do it to save water (to make up for long showers).

Often she would start making dinner the night before.  She would sort, clean, soak beans and wait.  The next day she would put them to boil and wait.  When she made menudo, it took hours.  Even her version was “fast” as she could find pre-made nixtamal (white corn).  Her ancestors shucked and dried the corn and then soaked and boiled it with ashes or lye.  Now we can find menudo in cans.  I admit there was one time I passed off canned menudo as homemade at a Christmas gathering because I was too busy and impatient to make it the right way.  “You made this?”  “Ummm, ya.”  Well, technically I did.

Tamales.  Another all-day affair.  Along with my sister and dad, we shuck and grind corn to make them.  We turn out rare little delicacies and make wonderful memories.  We don’t do it often – it’s faster and easier to buy them already made or go to a restaurant.  Do I specifically remember any of the latter?  No.  (Well, alright, in all honesty, I do remember every single tasty morsel from both the Poca Cosa restaurants)

I remember waiting for my grandpa’s tomatoes to get ripe.  We would check the plants for ripe ones, and they were oh so good.  Tomatoes and cucumbers were the treasures of summer and they usually couldn’t be found any other time of year.  It forced us to eat with the seasons – and wait.  People had been so happy to have food come into season, festivals were dedicated to harvests.

When things take a long time, it requires you to develop other skills – like planning, routine, and organization.  Right now the only major things I have to pre-plan are the holidays and my son’s birthday party.  Sometimes even those are half gluteus maximus.  Everyone home late?  Damn, I should have put something into the crock pot.  Lets grab a $5 grab-and-go pizza – just this time.  Yea, right.

Yes, we still have to wait just as long for some things.  Babies still take nine months to bake.  Hair grows out just the same from a bad haircut. Some things take even longer.  I sometimes wait three months for a doctor appointment and hours to see the doctor from my scheduled time.

Another thing that remains the same is the mail-in prizes from cereal boxes.  My son clips the coupons and waits for the next box to be bought.  Then we have to fill out the form, stick it in an envelope, mail it snail mail and wait for it come back by the same snail  (the snail is faster now).  The prizes are no better than what he gets from kid meals, but they don’t end up kicked aside or destroyed as fast.  He enjoys the fruits of his patience and labor more.  He’ll also remember it with pride rather than the blur of the other junk.

“Where’s the Scooby Doo I bought you?”
“What Scooby Doo?”
“The three-foot Scooby?  The one you begged for in Toys R Us.  The one that kept getting in the way of everything?  The one I tripped over and almost had to go to the ER for a concussion?”
“What are you talking about?”

Hmmm, maybe if I had made him wait….

What are some other things we no longer have to wait for?

See a list of all my dicho posts here.

Do you have dichos to share?  If so, email them to comments@bjaysplace.com.

Would you like to be alerted to new posts?  Sign up for the RSS feed for this page (to the right), sign up for my personal Twitter feed (this includes all my internet doings),  or sign up for the blog’s Facebook page.

About Bjay