Terms of Endearment

Just the other day, as I was tending to Baby Granddaughter, a phrase popped into my head that I have not heard for many years.  I've only heard my mom use the phrase, and I've only heard her use it to refer to babies.  The phrase was, interestingly, "Sugar Lump o' Dirt".

OK, so you say, why would anyone call a baby a "Sugar Lump o' Dirt"?  The longer I thought about it and tumbled the words around in my head, the more curious I became.  So, when I took Baby Granddaughter to my parents' home for a visit recently, I asked Mom about the phrase.  

She began to laugh out loud, and told me she had not thought about the words for years.  Then she asked how I possibly remembered the phrase.  I told her she had always used those words to describe a baby.   When I asked her about the origin of the phrase, assuming it had been handed down from someone in her family, she told me she had just made it up.

I wonder if, when my little brother, Mayor, and I, as babies, got into a mess of some kind in the back yard, my mother didn't use the phrase in equal parts love and exasperation at the two dirty little children she was faced with cleaning from head to toe. 

Sugar Lump o' Dirt - it has quite a nice ring to it.

The more I roll it around on my tongue, the more musical it becomes.  And because it brought back such a happy memory to my Mom, I know it will stay fresh in my mind for a long time. 

Poor Baby Granddaughter - guess what I'll be calling her now?