Well I Swan...

That's what we say down in the Tennessee hills to express incredulity. Consider the following example.

Grandson: Mammaw, we went down to the fishin' hole today and this big ole white bird came right up to the edge of the water. It wasn't skeered a'tall.
Mammaw: Well I swan.

I walked down to the "fishin' hole" in Prospect Park today and snapped these two stunning examples of cygnine pulchritude (another term from the Tennessee hills).

I also captured a beautiful shelf fungus, which seemed to be quite happy with the dreary weather.

An image like that might prompt Georgia O' Keefe to proclaim "Well I swan."

Comments

[mimo]

this pic is hella cool!! NICE!

[Ken]

My mammaw would sometimes use "Well, I swan to my time!" when she was extra incredulous of something. Of course there's also "Paul's over yonder but he'll be here dreckly. . . "

:D
(Oh, and she was from North Central Kentucky)

[Brett]

My mother was from SE Arkansas, very Deep South, largely Delta, and not very different from the area across the river in Mississippi or just south in Northeast Louisiana. My father was from the upper eastern fringe of Southwest Arkansas Delta, lumber country largely settled from mid-Tennessee given the histories of those families I know. In both places, it was "I swan", although it may have been more prevalent in Southeast Arkansas.

[Stan]

My maternal grandmother used that expression a lot. I always assumed that it was an expression from the Hill Country of Texas, but now I think it came from her grandparents from the hills of Kentucky

[rachel]

Those are lovely pix.

[rachel]

Those are lovely pix.

[Gordon]

cygnine pulchritude

Fancy talk from an ol' Mountain William! Well I swan!

[Southerner]

If you are really from the deep south, it is proper to say, "Well, I swanee."