My grandpa loved to speak in sayings. He loved to say things about the weather, neighbors, or even your love life, which never failed to bring back a sentence that had been said and repeated countless times within the family.
As a teenager, I thought they were cheesy, the verbal equivalent of his suspenders. But now that I am his age, I occasionally catch myself saying them to my grandchildren in his same exact cadence.
Old sayings have a time-release effect. You hear them at ten, and they go off at forty. Here are twenty-seven of his that keep making more sense the older I get.
Measure Twice, Cut Once
This was literal in the workshop, and he made us do it, even if we were sure. It took me twenty years to notice the best uses have nothing to do with wood. Marriages, mortgages, career changes, angry emails, all of these things eventually cut. Measuring is free of charge and it turns out the lumber is your life.
If It Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It
He never upgraded from his old truck, while our neighbors always had the newest models. Once I would’ve said he must’ve been cheap. However, I’ve learned to appreciate the value of knowing the difference between improvement and disturbing something. Countless frustrations of mine have stemmed from attempting to fix things that I didn’t need to.
A Penny Saved Is a Penny Earned
In his 80s, he collected pennies from parking lots. It’s not really about the pennies, it’s about how saving money becomes the same as earning money, but on a smaller scale. Each raise I earned was completely spent until I learned this lesson. His coffee can of pennies beat a majority of the investment ideas I’ve had over the years.
Don’t Count Your Chickens Before They Hatch
He said this, while we looked forward to things that were still to happen. It never once stopped us from counting, and the eggs failed to hatch right on schedule. The old man was not being negative, he was measuring hope out in survivable doses. I manage to get excited on check-clearing day, but no earlier.
Make Hay While the Sun Shines
On the farm, this was just scheduling. Learning the sun doesn’t shine according to my plans was the hardest lesson to learn off the farm. The good knees, the willing kids, the strong market, the healthy parents, all of it is weather. When the stars align, I work, and when they don’t, I wait for the opportunity to work some other day.
You Can’t Get Blood from a Turnip
He deployed it on broke relatives and stubborn machinery alike. This suggests some situations cannot give what you try to extract from them. I have wasted whole years of effort on turnips, worthless jobs, people who have no interest, and money-less business plans. Learning to identify a turnip has to be one of the greatest abilities learned in adulthood.
Actions Speak Louder Than Words
He was always suspicious of smooth talkers, and thankfully he was right every time. Many times in my life I have been seduced by talk and have been caught by the ledger, which always brings you back to behavior. Now instead of listening to what comes out of people’s mouths, I just watch their feet. This has made my life much more simple.
Many Hands Make Light Work
Every barn raising, every harvest, every kitchen after a funeral all proved his point. Nowadays it’s called asking for help, and I have resisted this for the last thirty years like it was some kind of character failing. Work that is shared is not just quicker, there is a grace to it that is not related to weight in the literal sense. I finally comprehend the neighbors were not helping us, we simply took turns.
Don’t Put All Your Eggs in One Basket
I consider this as investment advice, but it’s more than that. Friendship, skill, plan, source of joy, they’re all in the same basket problem. He had the farm, the garden, the shop, the church, and the card game. His happiness would not be devastated from any of those things being taken from him. The idea is to have many sources of happiness, to diversify.
A Stitch in Time Saves Nine
He has always fixed what is broken the same day he notices it. I used to think he was just tidy, but I now realize it is a philosophy of his to not let unresolved issues grow and compound interest. Almost every big mess I have had to clean up in my life and career was from skipping one simple act I should have done.
Waste Not, Want Not
He straightened bent nails and stored them in coffee cans, and we laughed at him. He had known years when a nail was not a given, and we had not. That saying comes out of a shortage of nails the first time your supply of anything dries up. Now I compost, mend, save jars, I’m sure he is nodding.
The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease
Although restrained in his speech, he always knew just how to be vocal. When the co-op shorted him or when the county ignored the road, he would become remarkably vocal. I spent decades being patient and polite. I wondered why nothing changed. Vigorously, but politely, advocating for yourself is necessary for change.
You Catch More Flies with Honey Than Vinegar
He could disagree with a man for forty years and still lend him a tiller. Every fight I have won with vinegar cost me more than it paid. The honey approach is not weak. It is knowing what you want to catch. Kindness, he knew, is the only argument that some individuals cannot argue against.
Don’t Burn Your Bridges
Small towns have this rule. The guy you yelled at in March shows up to fix your tractor in June. I used to live in a small town but thought I could skip that step and move to a city. Little did I know that the rule carries on to the city. The city is just a large small town with a very good memory. Every bridge I have ever burned, I have stood at the bank of wishing I could have it back.
Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day
He said it about barns, gardens, businesses, and children. I heard a call for patience, but I think he meant something else. He’s saying that big things are just small things done repeatedly beyond the point where everyone else loses interest. What started as joke sticks in the mud are now his orchard. For thirty years I’ve eaten the peaches from those sticks.
When It Rains, It Pours
The furnace, the transmission, and the tooth always went in the same month, and he never once seemed surprised. He kept reserves for exactly this, money, firewood, patience, and canned goods. I was taught to look beyond the ‘why me’ during pile ons and look toward the ‘what next’ by that saying. Trouble clusters, and so should your preparations.
Hard Work Never Killed Anybody
He’d say it and even as he was handing you the shovel it was said with a wink. It is not entirely true. Most people know that. He meant that dread is the enemy, not effort. Tiredness from working is a relief to the body, and I have noticed I sleep better after a long day than after a lazy one in my life.
There’s No Such Thing as a Free Lunch
Every deal comes at a price, and he could sniff out the hidden cost. He read the fine print of life the way other men read the sports page. There’s a saying that has kept me from wasting money on timeshares and pyramid schemes, and several friendly folks trying to sell me their products. If the cost is not obvious, he would say, then you are the cost.
Better to Say Nothing and Be Thought a Fool
The full version ends with, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. He was the coolest man at every meeting and somehow the one everybody quoted afterward. I talked my way into looking foolish for years before his math finally clicked. Restraint looks like wisdom in the end. Most of the time it is.
Use the Right Tool for the Job
Watching me pry a lid with a good chisel literally pained him. The workshop rule became a lifelong rule, using the wrong tool ruins the task as well as the tool. People also end up getting used as wrong tools, the fixer friend, the therapist spouse, the parent manager. Now when something strains, I ask whether it is the effort or whether I have just grabbed the chisel again.
Leave It Better Than You Found It
Campsites, trucks, kitchens, and (he finally explained) people. This is the earth’s smallest ethical system and is applicable to everything that exists. He made sure to return everything in better condition than he found it. I cannot borrow so much as a pencil now without hearing him.
Nothing Good Happens After Midnight
As a teenager this belief was the most oppressive to me. As a parent up waiting, I’ve come to realize that it wasn’t a curfew, but a statistical observation. There are certain hours of the day when phone calls come that will absolutely change your life, and he knew their area codes. Even now I can relax a little more when the clock clears two.
Tell the Truth and You Never Have to Remember Anything
His filing system extended to life and let his mind think about what was important. I have seen intelligent people stress about their stories inventory management system. He had no fear, as he told the same story to everyone, which meant he had no system to track and no information to keep. It is the laziest form of integrity, and he meant lazy as a compliment.
If Wishes Were Horses, Beggars Would Ride
Whenever we had the mopes about wanting things he would say it. It sounds harsh until you notice it is not against wishing, it is against stopping at wishing. Wishes are free and horses cost money, so get to work on the horse. Every good thing I own was a wish somebody made me put a saddle on.
Every Dog Has Its Day
He said it about underdogs, late bloomers, and himself. It kept him kind to people the world had counted out, because he figured their day was simply not on the calendar yet. I’ve finally reached the point in my life where I have seen several outcasts have great days. Patience with others, it turns out, is just faith with a longer clock.
Don’t Borrow Trouble
Imagining future problems reminded him of borrowing money against a potential catastrophe for which he would pay interest daily. He dealt promptly and directly with real problems. He was not going to waste his trouble-free evenings at home drumming up imaginary problems. The majority of the things I have suffered in my life never occurred. He was trying to warn me about this.
This Too Shall Pass
He would say this during the droughts, the funerals, and the championship seasons. This confused me as a young boy. The saying is brilliant, in that it can be used in both situations. Good times are rented as well as bad times, therefore one must cry and one must celebrate. It is the only thing of his that I have had to pull out on the most tragic and most joyous of days in my life.
