Thankee, thankee muchly for reading this Ozarks language memory

Some time ago, I got to thinking about the way I talked when I was a kid, and that led me to thinking about how other people talked. Then I got interested in looking into the formation of language and adding to the traditional American vocabulary.

That line of thinking of started when I remembered my childhood buddy, Steve. Years ago when I was a little kid, we lived in a village in one of the northernmost counties of the Ozarks. That was where my mother had grown up, and when my dad got out of the Air Force, he and Mama and me took up  residence with Grandpa and Grandma while Daddy worked, went to trade school and eventually moved us into our own place down in Greene County in southwest Missouri.

Well, in my memories of Steve, or Stevie, as I called him when I was a little kid, I also thought about his Aunt Maude. Well, actually she was his great-aunt. She was quite old when Stevie and I became playmates. He was a year older than I, but we played together frequently. He lived up the gravel road that ran off the state highway, up to the top of a slope, where it split with one length turning left to  rejoin the highway and another length continuing straight and down the hill and on toward the various farms in that county

The villagers' houses were on the gravel road on the L-shape of the road from the highway back onto highway.

Now at the top of the hill where the road split, there was a little country store operated by Aunt Maude, or as Stevie pronounced it Aint Maude. Every now and again when I had a dime, I’d go to the store with Stevie after we played awhile, and I would pick out what we two hillbilly boys called a sody. I’d give a dime for my sody, usually a root beer, or an orange, and Stevie would get his Coke for free from Aint Maude, who adored him. Sometimes I’d get a Coke, too, and Stevie would get some peanuts, which he shared with me for my Coke.

On the front porch of the little store was a big wooden box that Steve and his folks and his Aunt Maude called a bread box. Apparently in the old days when Maude’s husband was alive and the store really thrived because transportation in the nearest town, 6 miles away, was not convenient, that box was used by the traveling bread truck to drop off bread if the store was closed, and then they’d settle up later.

Well, Maude was forever hollering at us to “get off that bread box” or “close that bread box.” She was always pretty cranky toward me and Stevie when I showed up. I don’t think she ever griped at him when I wasn’t there, though.

One day, Stevie and I decided to get into the box. I think Stevie actually decided, for I was an obedient little scaredy cat. And Maude scared me.

But I said, “OK,” when he said, “Let’s get in the bread box.” It was empty. It wasn’t used at all for anything, but it was apparently precious to Aunt Maude. We were little fellers–I think I was in first grade and Stevie was in second–so there was plenty of room for us to fit into it. We climbed in and let the top shut down on us. It was darker than I’d ever experienced.

“Let’s get out of here,” one of us said, probably me, always the scaredy cat. And we pushed against the top to lift it. It would not lift. It was as if a lock were on it. What had happened was that we – well, actually, Stevie said it was I – had failed to hold the hasp against the bottom of the lid.

So when we shut the top, the hasp fell over the little loop for a lock. Even though there was no lock, we couldn’t get out. That dadgum hasp held on despite the banging around we gave the lid.

Then one of us, likely Stevie for he was far more of a thinker than I, had the idea of turning over and pushing against the lid with our backs.

We pressed hard against it, and eventually the hasp broke off and the lid came up. We scrambled out.

Stevie picked up the broken hasp and took it into Aint Maude and told her what had happened.

Oh, my goodness, there was some yelling and screaming, and I ran through the store, out the door and down the hill to our house. I didn’t say anything about the adventure.

Soon the new phone rang; I think it was two longs and a short, but I’m not sure. (If you don’t know what means, I’ll have to explain it someday.) My Mama picked it up. “Hello. Yes. OK. I’ll take care of it.” She hung up and said, “What did you and Stevie do?” I had to tell her, but I blamed it all on Stevie.

“Well, shame on you,” she said. “Don’t do that again.” I didn’t get a whipping or anything. I reckon it was because Mama was no fan of Stevie’s Aunt Maude.

Now, I have gotten way off base from where I intended to go. This started out as a column about language.

For several months I’ve been thinking about how Maude would say to the customers when she gave them their change and receipt, “Thankee. Thankee muchly.”

Now, there is no “muchly” in the dictionary, at least not in my AP approved dictionary, or in my AP Stylebook.

But I like the word “muchly” a lot, or muchly. It seems workable in context. Plus, it reminds me of Stevie Kay and his Aint Maude. Both are long dead. Maude died of old age. Stevie died some years back, too, of health issues. He was born without a spleen. That didn’t keep him from serving in the Navy or living a full life. It just shortened that life.

So, in honor of Stevie and his Aunt Maude, I have started telling store checker-outers, food servers, bank tellers and anyone else, “Thankee. Thankee muchly.”

But I’m still here, slinging words, and I’m hoping that some of the language I heard in my childhood will become part of the American vernacular.

Feel free to help me do so. Start by adding “muchly” to your vocabulary.

For more information about words and language, go take a gander online at Unlocking the Power of American English Word Formation - USA Vocabulary https://usavocabulary.com/blog/2025/06/06/unlocking-the-power-of-american-english-word-formation/

Weather and birds and old people

The temperature wasn't missing this morning. There was a little bit of it, but not a great deal. Certainly not enough to make Ozarks Boy happy.
The sun is out this afternoon and it is warmer, but as soon as the sun goes down, it's going to plummet again.

What happened to that global warming the Democrats were talking about? I'm going to have to do a little internet research on that deal. I was counting on global warming to get me through my old age.

The birds are congregating at our seed and suet feeders. There's a beautiful cardinal on the black sunflower seed feeder right outside the window, and he is eating as fast as he can. I'm going to have to bundle up, go outside and replenish those feeders. I see one sunflower seed feeder was emptied yesterday.
If you're not feeding the birds, you should. They can use the help during this cold weather. My wife and I enjoy the birds so we feed year-round and watch them. They're highly entertaining for us old folks.
That cardinal in the morning sunlight is gorgeous. The Lord did a good job in that design; well, the Lord did a good job in all His designs (except for snakes). Now a tufted titmouse has landed on the feeder with him. Whoops, the cardinal just ran the titmouse away.
I'm going to have to get out there and get some more seed to them. I also need to put some water in the birdbath. The birds around here are so coddled, that the birdbath has a mini heater in it to keep it from freezing solid. As long as the city pumps electric to us, we can keep the birds watered.

Birds better pray every night before bedtime, thanking God for old people who take care of them.

Is intelligence declining with each generation?

The screen at the do-it-yourself checkout lane at Wal-Mart beeped at me one afternoon and informed me I'd have to have some help from someone in authority. All I had done was scan a spray can of polyurethane that I was going to use to seal a bird feeder.
"What did this thing beep for?" I asked the woman who showed up to fix the machine so I could scan some more purchases. "It's just a can of spray paint."
"Well," she said. "Young people buy this stuff and sniff it, so I have to monitor it."
"They sniff spray paint?" I said. "Are young people stupider nowadays?"
"Yes, sir, they are," the clerk said, knowing that the customer is always right.
I told my wife what had happened when I got home, and she told me to make sure the spray nozzle was on the can. She know something I didn't, which is that stores often remove the nozzles of spray paint so kids can't come in the store and sniff the paint.
You know, it's a dadburn shame that stupid kids make shopping inconvenient for those of us who are older, smarter and wiser.
It's sad to note that these little paint-sniffing peckerwoods are going to grow up to drive, vote and pass their genetic material on to the next generation.

Scientist teaches students to think as astrophysicists

For many of us, the only time we think about the stars is at Christmas when we hear sermons that include the story of the Star of Bethlehem.

Dr. John L. Schmitt thinks about stars every day.

“I’m the astronomer for the university,” says Dr. Schmitt, associate professor of physics at the Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla.

He also is the director of the MST Observatory, teaches two astronomy classes and their companion labs and conducts research in cloud physics.

Astronomy is far more than stargazing, as the students in Physics 9, the introductory course, soon find out.

“Some students are disappointed to find out that they aren’t going to learn all the signs of the zodiac and the constellations in the first two weeks of classes,” Dr. Schmitt laughs.

Moreover, the students in Physics 10, the lab that goes with the introductory course, don’t use the observatory. Instead, they use computer simulations as they become well-grounded in the mathematics, physical chemistry and forces of the heavenly bodies.

“When you talk about astronomy here, you’re really talking about astrophysics,” Dr. Schmitt says. “General Physics 9 could be called Astrophysics 101, because we’re interested in how things work.”

The advanced class, Physics 305, “is an entirely different animal,” he says. Students in that class need a solid background in higher mathematics, because one of their requirements is to construct a numerical model of a star.

Advanced students use the MST Observatory’s 16-inch telescope for some of their assignments and research.

“We ask a lot of questions about temperature and structure of a star—what happens to it, where did it come from, where is it going,” he says. “We study nuclear reactions because you don’t have a star without nuclear reactions.”

Dr. Schmitt acknowledges that the MST Observatory is in a less-than-ideal location.

“Viewing would be better 10 miles south of town, but the university built an observatory so it can be used,” he says. “That’s why it was decided to put the observatory on campus.”

The observatory is also used by the public, in addition to students.

“We’ve had school children and church groups ask to visit it,” Dr. Schmitt says. “We have Visitors Nights every semester.”

It was a university observatory that piqued Dr. Schmitt’s interest in astronomy (or astrophysics).

“I was a student at Michigan Tech, which was like this campus. It was the school of mines up there. Missouri has lead; Michigan has copper.”

As an undergraduate in, Schmitt had the opportunity to spend a summer at the observatory of the University of Michigan.

“It was a very good observatory,” Schmitt says. “It had the largest spectrograph in the world. That summer included work in optics, which I like, so it looked like a very good area to get into.”

Schmitt earned a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Michigan in 1968 and came to MST in 1974.

Although he is an astronomer or astrophysicist, Dr. Schmitt’s research has been closer to the earth. He conducts experiments and investigations into cloud physics, studying how pure vapor condenses into drops of liquid.

“I build cloud chambers,” he says. Those chambers allow physicists to simulate clouds and study their structure and changes.

It’s evident that physics includes a wide range of study and research, and Dr. Schmitt says a student who earns a bachelor’s degree in physics at Missouri S&T is well-prepared for a number of careers, including continuing study in astrophysics.

“You need to go on to a good grad school to be an astrophysicist,” he says, and MST has a cooperative arrangement with the University of Missouri-St. Louis for graduate students wanting to focus on astronomy or astrophysics.

Dr. Schmitt works with CERN, the world’s largest particle physics lab, which is located outside Geneva on the border between Switzerland and France. CERN is a French acronym, and the lab is the European organization for nuclear research, looking at cosmic rays, clouds and climate.

The Star of Bethlehem

Because he is a scientist who has a worldwide reputation in physics, Dr. Schmitt keeps his faith and his scientific research separate.

There have been several theories advanced by scientists, historians and theologians, who say The Star of Bethlehem could have been a comet, an alignment of planets or a miracle.

Dr. Schmitt says the book The Star of Bethlehem: The Legacy of the Magi has “one of the best-supported arguments I’ve read.”

In that book, Michael R. Molnar, who earned a Ph.D. in astronomy from the University of Wisconsin in 1971, advances the theory that The Star of Bethlehem was the planet Jupiter as it was eclipsed by the Moon during its move through the constellation of Aries, the zodiacal sign associated with the Jews.

Molnar says an eclipse of Jupiter occurred on April 17 of 6 B.C. when the planet, or star as ancient stargazers would have thought of it, was “in the east.” Jupiter then slowly moved across the night sky until Aug. 23 when it became stationary and “went before,” or through Aries where it became stationary again or “stood over” on Dec. 19, 6 B.C.

This, Molnar says, explains why King Herod and the people of Jerusalem did not see the Star. They weren’t astrologers. Modern astronomers also don’t see anything unusual about the movement of Jupiter, “but for ancient stargazers this configuration was truly awesome,” Molnar writes.

Dr. Schmitt says Molnar’s book, published by Rutgers University Press, can be taken seriously by scientists because it is backed up with scientific evidence.

“Evidence, we deal with evidence,” Dr. Schmitt says of science. “Simply saying, I think it’s this way, or I believe it is this way, is not enough. You have to have evidence to back up what you say. And that evidence is examined by everybody.”

Are poinsettias poisonous?

Probably no other houseplant has been tested for toxicity as much as the poinsettia.

All research results have found all parts of the poinsettia to be non-toxic when ingested. Even so, it is still widely believed that ingestion of the plant is poisonous.

Research conducted by Ohio State University and POISINDEX (for the U.S. Poison Control Centers) found that a fifty-pound child would have to eat more than 500 poinsettia leaves to exceed the experimental doses found to be toxic.

While poinsettias may not be toxic, mistletoe berries and holly berries are toxic and should be avoided when small children or pets are around.