"Gone to her Aunt's"

Williebee · Jun 4, 2007

Need some opinions here, please:

In dealing with an unwanted pregnancy, there was an old saying. But, I've heard it two different ways.

Was it "Gone to her Aunt's" (heard this one from someone from Georgia.)

or

"Gone to her Sister's" ala Bruce Hornsby.

??

thanks in advance.

PeeDee · Jun 4, 2007

I'm not entirely sure what you're asking here. Are you asking if we know the phrases?

I've heard Gone to her Aunt's, but I'm from Louisiana, so it may just be a southern phrase. I have no idea. I've never heard the second phrase.

WordGypsy · Jun 4, 2007

I've always heard gone to her aunts...or a sick grandparent. That was back in the 30-40's though right? I'm from Ohio if that matters. Maybe it kills the "just in the south" thing...

Shadow_Ferret · Jun 4, 2007

First I heard of it.

johnzakour · Jun 4, 2007

I've never heard either phrase.

Storyteller5 · Jun 4, 2007

I've heard "gone to aunt's" but only in fiction and not in real life.

Saint Fool · Jun 4, 2007

Southerner here ... Yes on "gone to her aunt's"

PeeDee · Jun 4, 2007

S'Fool said:
Southerner here ... Yes on "gone to her aunt's"

I think it's a deep southern thing all the way. Once I left Louisiana, I never heard it again. Not even when I was up in Virginia.

pdr · Jun 4, 2007

It's a common expression in...

many countries. Right up to the 1970s any teenage girl who 'vanished' from her home for more than six months, whether 'gone to her aunt's' or 'to help a relative' or 'to learn a foreign language', was automatically assumed, by the spiteful and gossipy majority that make up a community, to have been pregnant.

I can remember the headmistress of my school advising those of us debating about taking a 6 month, chaperoned stay in France to go in twos to avoid spiteful gossip. This was back in the early 1960s.

Those born after the 1970s have no idea what it was like. No pill, then the pill only with parental consent, no abortions, no sex education, and no one ever blamed the male for getting a girl pregnant. It was always her fault!

aruna · Jun 4, 2007

Yes. Gone to her Aunt's is familiar to me, though I can't remember any specific cases. I am from Guyana and England. It certainly was a euphemism for going off to have a baby - before the 60's.

Red Robin · Jun 4, 2007

Nope. Never heard of either. I've heard that Tin Roof - Rusted means pregnant. Yes, that is the B-52's lyric.

JeanneTGC · Jun 4, 2007

I'm from the Southwest, and I've never heard that particular expression. However, "gone to help out <insert relative>" was common, as was the "traveling abroad". The usual proof that this wasn't true was that no one ever gave you the address or phone number for those relatives your friend was helping out, nor did you ever receive postcards from abroad.

In college in the early '80's a good friend went "traveling abroad" -- one day she's in the dorms, the next day she's gone, no word, folks wouldn't answer the door. Called me a year later after her trip to "Gstaad", with no actual mentions of anything remotely European. Just 'cause you have access to the pill doesn't mean you're taking it.

louisgodwin · Jun 4, 2007

I'm from Texas and have never heard this expression before, but what's weird is in the beginning of my novel, a young Mormon girl gets shipped off by her parents to her aunt's place when she turns up pregnant. So now I'm wondering if perhaps I did hear it somewhere and internalized it.

aruna · Jun 4, 2007

JeanneTGC said:
In college in the early '80's a good friend went "traveling abroad" -- one day she's in the dorms, the next day she's gone, no word, folks wouldn't answer the door. Called me a year later after her trip to "Gstaad", with no actual mentions of anything remotely European. Just 'cause you have access to the pill doesn't mean you're taking it.

Yes, girls oftenalso wnet abroad. I know of a friend of mine who went to Trinidad very suddenly. She didn't have a baby there, but an abortion. I also have it in my first novel - women going off somewhere for several months to have the baby.
I guess knowing these expressions kind of dates us!

PeeDee · Jun 4, 2007

My wife's pregnant, and it didn't occur to me to send her somewhere....hm....

PattiTheWicked · Jun 5, 2007

She's STILL pregnant? My goodness, Pete, how much longer is this going to go on?

(I bet Mrs. PeeDee is thinking the same thing)

Jamesaritchie · Jun 5, 2007

Gone

Around here, Indiana, girls did used to be shipped off, but the term fit whichever relative they were sent to, though an aunt was the obvious choice. I had a good friend back in the early 70s who "went to visit her aunt." The baby was then put up for adoption. She came back and told everyone the whole story.

ccarver30 · Jun 5, 2007

I've never heard of that. I've heard of "Aunt Flo visiting", but not that. LOL

Perks · Jun 5, 2007

PeeDee said:
I think it's a deep southern thing all the way. Once I left Louisiana, I never heard it again. Not even when I was up in Virginia.

Yeah, I grew up in Virginia and I haven't heard that phrase. So, if you use it, give all the Yankees and half-Yankees a little clue.

aruna · Jun 5, 2007

It might be a Brit thing.

PeeDee · Jun 5, 2007

PattiTheWicked said:
She's STILL pregnant? My goodness, Pete, how much longer is this going to go on?

(I bet Mrs. PeeDee is thinking the same thing)

Six to eight weeks. Too long. Not long enough.

If it were a British phrase, why would it turn up in the south...?

"Gone to her Aunt's" was what I always heard down there. in New England, I always heard "bun in the oven." and in the west, they cleverly used the word "pregnant."

I know that "bun in the oven" is the only one of those phrases that gets my wife to whack me, though.

scarletpeaches · Jun 5, 2007

I heard there were a lot of girls even up to the 70s who 'went to visit an aunt who was ill'. Guess I was lucky that my mother was too damn stupid to work out she was pregnant 'til she was too far gone to have an abortion or to arrange a 'family visit' then.

Williebee · Jun 5, 2007

Thanks for all your input!

To clarify (maybe), Growing up in Texas, in the 60's, I'd hear "Gone to visit her Aunt's". Back in the late 80's Bruce Hornsby put out a song called "The Valley Road" which included the lines: "Somebody said she's gone to her sisters. But everybody knew what they were talking about."

So, what we've shown here so far is: 1) Not everybody knew what they were talking about. 2) Though older, the phrase is more universal than I thought. 3) You folks are awesome responders and a great group.
and finally, 4) I STILL don't know if I'm going to use it... it fits the story, and the setting, but it's going to be a distraction to those that don't understand it. Hey look! I've got a coin...

Thanks again, everybody.

PeeDee · Jun 5, 2007

I would use it freely in dialog and probably not at all in the prose itself.

In dialog, it sounds great.

maddythemad · Jun 5, 2007

If it's perfect for your story, why don't you go ahead and use it. I've never heard the saying before, but in context I could probably figure out what it means.

Maybe you could post the paragraph it's in?

"Gone to her Aunt's"

Capeless, wingless, & yet I fly.

Where's my tea, please...?

Court Jester

Dangerous with a Keyboard

Say something...

Where's my tea, please...?

On a wing and a prayer

Veni Vidi Scripsi

I *am* Catwoman...and Gini Koch

Back from the dead

On a wing and a prayer

Where's my tea, please...?

Unleashing Hell.

Nicole Castro

delicate #!&@*#! flower

On a wing and a prayer

Where's my tea, please...?

Capeless, wingless, & yet I fly.

Where's my tea, please...?

I am Catwoman...and Gini Koch