Knee-high to a grasshopper, and Mother’s Day
By DAN LANGFORD
Anybody out there have any idea where this phrase comes from? It certainly sounds Southern, but I have no proof of its origin. Under the assumption that it is a Southern phrase, though (and I feel half-way confident assuming this because I can’t imagine anyone from New Jersey using the phrase); I’d like to make it my topic for the week.
“I’ve known him since he was knee-high to a grasshopper.”
“I haven’t seen one of those since I was knee-high to a grasshopper.”
Such are the types of sentences in which one hears this colorful old phrase. Sometimes I have heard “hoppergrass” used instead of “grasshopper,” but in my part of the world such usage is generally reserved for folks with little standing in their communities.
Taken in the context of those illustrative sentences (and in any other context in which you’d be apt to hear the phrase), it rather obviously means “since I (or someone else) was quite young.” A grasshopper’s knees are pretty low, and the phrase is just a colorful way of expressing the time when the subject of the conversation was basically a babe-in-arms.
That image brings me around to this coming Sunday, which is Mothers’ Day, for the arms most babes are in belong to their mothers. Our mothers carried us before we were knee-high to a grasshopper, tended us long after we grew in grace and stature, and loved us even when we were at our most unlovely. They eased our anxieties, bandaged our wounds, cheered our victories, and wiped our tears. Let’s not just honor them on Sunday, but every day; for they’ve put up with us since we were born — before we were born — and if anyone has known us since we were knee-high to a grasshopper, it’s our moms.
Happy Mother’s Day.