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Katie Bar the Door!
Would you know what this meant if someone said it to you? My husband, born and raised in the deepest of the deep south, used it last night in a phone conversation with our son (his baby has just started getting up on all 4's and trying to launch into a crawl).
Me, raised in New England, had no earthly idea what he was talking about! (Had he lost it and was he invoking Katie, our long deceased Siamese cat to somehow block a door?) Our son was equally confused, also thinking he was talking about Katie the Cat. Our son's wife, born and raised in Texas, could be heard in the background saying, "Haven't you ever heard that expression before?!" So...if you are familiar with this, please settle a little family discussion. Is this a common saying throughout the country or a regional (Southern) colloquialism? |
I was raised in the South and never heard this one :D
But it sounds like the equally charming... <i> Knock me down and call me Shirley </i> LOL which is what I learned from dear Elvira.. |
Hi OO, never heard that expression but no big shock living in CA all my life. But the expression "don't let the door hit you on your way out" is an expression I have heard more than once (well not said to me personally, thank goodness). I guess if I heard the expression you mentioned here I would "assume" that the doors should be locked/bolted or whatever so someone could not get in or out?
Hope someone on Fodor's can explain..interesting saying. Take care. |
Having been Southern born and bred (VA), I'm very familiar with this expression, often intoned by my mother and/or grandmother in the face of impending disaster.
Here's an explanation obtained by a quick Google search: http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-kat1.htm |
Isn't google great, but Betsy beat me to it. The first part of the explanation at the web site Betsy lists is "The phrase Katy bar the door! (also as Katy bar the gate!; sometimes written as Katie) is a very American exclamation, more common in the South than elsewhere, meaning that disaster impends—“watch out”, “get ready for trouble” or “a desperate situation is at hand”." Although my mother was born and raised in VA, I've never heard that expression (as is often true, Virginia isn't South enough to be really considered "Southern".
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WAit a minute OO...that little tiny bundle of smiles is trying to crawl??? :O
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LOL A friend just emailed me the same web page. It flowed from my husband's lips so smoothly, but left my son and me speechless--"Huh"? "Katie"? See...even after 200 years of marriage, you still can learn from each other! :)
I just threw "Knock me down and call me Shirley" at him, but it was no go. Maybe that is an Elvira-ism? As a Californian LoveItaly, you are forgiven. It might come out something like: "Like Katie, like <i>baaaar</i> the door!" in the best Valley Girl accent. We had a discussion here about regional sayings/usage a couple years ago and I found several of the things I'd heard his family say, ("buggy" for a grocery cart for example), were very common throughout the South but alien to me until I was introduced to his family. Katie Bar the Door was just slow getting out to me--40 years in the south was not long enough! |
Yes, well, we'll see Scarlett...he managed to find himself on hands and knees and rocked back and forth...maybe only because he was unsteady in that new position. LOL It sounds a lot early to me--he's just shy of 4 months!
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OO, I'd guess your husband is right on in saying "Katie bar the door" as a result of the conversation with his son re his grandson on hands and knees launching into a crawl at less than four months old. Yikes! Better bar the door, the windows, and anything else that can be barred! This thread is definitely travel-related, if only at a crawl!
=-o |
Hi OO, LOL, actually I am in N CA.
Hey, let me tell you a story. In SF, a very nice neighborhood, a couple of nights ago a woman was driving home around 2:00am. In the middle of the street was a tiny toddler, about two years old. He was toddling down the street just as happy as can be. She stopped and called 911. The police came. Don't remember every detail but long story short this little fellow had gotten out of bed and opened up the front door and decided to take a trip (so see this thread is travelled related). The dear mother was asleep in her bedroom and had no idea that her little guy had left the house. That would be a good time for "Katie Bar the Door!" I believe. Wonder if this little fellow will be on Fodor's in about 16 or so years. He sounds like he already loves to travel. |
Growing up in southern California in the late 1940's and 1950's, "Katie, bar the door" was, if not common, at least heard occasionally. As stated, it inferred trouble was on the way. I haven't heard it used in years so it may have been more common then than now.
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Hello, all! I've heard <i>of</i> the expression, but I don't know that I've ever heard anyone use it in real life. I think it's regional.
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This is what I know for signal of impending disaster:
Draw in your skirts ladies, we are going through hell. I did live in the South and never heard the Katie expression. |
How funny--I thought that was a OWJ2-ism, not a real expression...My DH has been known to say it as he enters his 'reading room'...I knew to watch out!! Hehe
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Sure, I've heard that expression before (born and raised in the NE).
Here's a little more information for you. http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-kat1.htm http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/213750.html Four months?!? Good luck to all involved :D |
Born and raised in the Pacific NW and yes, I've heard "Katie bar the door." I've used the phrase often, in the sense of here comes trouble! I always thought it was common phrase, but this thread may explain why my boss just looked at me funny when I used it a few days ago :-)
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Born and raised on the east coast I have never heard this expression before either, OO. I clicked on the title expecting a post about John Wayne and the old west--happy trails!
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The comparable phrase (I think?) I grew up with up nawth was "Close the doors, they're comin' in the windows - close the windows, they're comin' in the doors."
I like Katie better -- makes more sense. |
Born and raised in the Midwest, I have never heard this before, but, OO that's what I like about Fodor's, it's so very educational! :-)
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Raised in south Georgia, now living in north Florida, I have never heard this one before. But it may be the only one I haven't heard. By the way, what's a grocery cart? We don't have them around here. We put our groceries in a buggy!
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Grew up in the northeast, and yes indeed, I heard it as a child--I always thought it was an Irish expression!
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Born and raised in NE Florida and have never heard this saying!
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Oh and almost forgot! I do call a grocery cart a buggy!
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Nobody in my family has ever lived anywhere outside of New England, and I know I've heard my mom use this expression. Like Sylvia, I probably assumed it was of Irish origins.
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I've never heard the expression (Montana), and when I saw the thread title my first thought was, "Uh oh, a Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes thread is inevitably going to be pulled today."
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Born in Michigan and I've spent most of my adult years in New Jersey. I've never heard this expression before. But I heard a ton of expressions from my Michigan relatives. For example, it's as cold as sin, or, slower then molassas in January.
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Growing up in Rhode Island, I've heard the expression fairly often. Somehow, I thought it had originated in a turn of the century songwriters lyrics!! You know, along with "the man on the flying trapeze"!
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Ok, I was watching "Family Feud" at lunch yesterday and one of the catagories was "name a famous Kate or Katie" (Katie Holmes, Katie Couric, Kate Smith, etc.) and heading off to commercial, the host said "Katie, bar the door". Small world.
I recognize the phrase, but it's not in my everyday usage. |
Growing up in Scotland, we learned about Catherine Douglas's heroism in School. I've never heard anyone use the phrase.
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I use a grocery cart and take purchases home in a paper bag, rather than using a buggie and a sack. Also, I take or drive my neighbor somewhere rather than carrying them. To me, if the sky is darkening, it's going to rain or about to rain, but my Southern friends say it's fixing to rain. I press the buttons on my phone to "dial" a number -- or I just "dial" it (even though I haven't had a dial phone in decades), but some I know mash the buttons. And I tell my Southern friends I'll get together with them or meet them tomorrow, but they say they'll get up with me then.
It's even more fun to finish phrases like "hot as..." or "dumb as...." -- that latter can be "dirt," "a thumb," "a post," "a sack of stones," and so forth. |
Very odd. I figured between my southern husband and DIL who both knew it so well, that it was a Southern expression, but obviously, reading these--that's not the case at all.
Slow as molasses, yes--probably used everywhere. Another that many people attribute to just their area, "if you don't like the weather, wait a minute and it will change", I heard as a child in New England, then again living in LA, then GA, TX, and FL. <i>Everyone</i> says it...well, maybe not AZ. :) |
We should change this expression to "Fodor's: bar the door!" and use it in the trolls' posts.
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Faina Barred the Door...or did she bare the bar? :-?
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Kal, I'm going to bar the gates... the Golden Gates... and all bridges - next October - so you can't bare your tattoo :-p
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F2,
It will say "Welcome to San Francisco-Have a nice day"...for those who know that joke. ;) Just hope it's not cold or it may just say "Way". |
It's funny how things like this catch your attention once someone brings the subject up. If anyone was listening to Bob Brinker's financial radio show today, he used "Katie, bar the door" three separate times over the course of an hour discussing the US national debt.
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Definitely would have heard Bob's declarations of "Katie bar the door" if that darn CalBears game hadn't preempted it here in the Bay area. Is Bob predicting impending disaster or what?
:-o |
I'm a 4th generation Californian and my Grandpa used to say it all the time. Usually when a big gust of wind would blow during a storm or if all the family dogs ran into the house at once.
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I was in a meeting once where the leader (from the south) was describing a situation and ended with, "He was on him like a duck on a June bug!" Some people laughed, but those of us who reside west of the Rockies all looked at him blankly and said, "A whut on a WHUT?!"
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I love Southern expressions. Two of my favourites are these -- someone said of a certain baseball pitcher that "He could throw a porkchop past a wolf" and I think it was Bill Clinton who said he'd be with us "...till the last dog died".
I think for Canadians, the most picturesque language comes from Newfoundland. Any Newfies out there to back me up? |
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