By Wally WachterRetired Herald Managing Editor
``KNEE HIGH by the Fourth of July,'' has always been the way of determining whether there will be a healthy and plentiful sweet corn crop.
Is there a scientific agricultural basis for this formula or is it just another of the idioms that has slipped into our language many years ago and has been accepted as fact?
Traveling the country lanes this summer we have noticed that the stalks are high _ not as high as an elephant's eye _ but at least to the height of the average person's knees. The early corn that is ready and appears on the produce shelves of food markets probably comes from shorter farmers in California, Florida and southern Ohio.
It's hard to trace the origin of the trite expressions, like the corn gem, which have endured our everyday language since most of us were ``still wet behind the ears.'' But, analyzing the nature of the oft-repeated words of wisdom, indicates that most of them stemmed back to the old farm days when horses and buggies were in full sway and automobiles were non-existent.
A familiar caution to the impatient who are ``chafing at the bit'' is ``hold your horses.''
Events that occur only occasionally happen only ``once in a blue moon.'' Things in the distant future are there ``until the cows come home.''
When a speaker hems and haws in coming to the point, he is accused of ``beating around the bush.''
Using a round-about way to get somewhere or to perform a task has been referred to as ``going around Robin Hood's barn'' or going around ``Fisher's fence.'' Everyone knows that the shortest distance between two points is ``as the crow flies.''
Greeting someone you haven't seen in a long time brings, ``I haven't seen you in a coon's age,'' or ``in a month of Sundays.'' or ``since the pig ate my brother.''
Pessimists are advised to ``hitch (their) wagons to a star,'' but are reminded that ``grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.'' Optimists are cautioned, ``Don't count your chickens before they are hatched,'' or ``Don't put all of your eggs in one basket.'' Another familiar word of advice is ``Make hay while the sun shines.''
An oft-repeated word of retaliation is, ``I'll fix your wagon.'' Words of skeptical caution often are, ``You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.''
Healthwise, people seem to be either ``fit as a fiddle'' or have ``one foot in the grave.'' They are either ``thin as a rail'' or ``as fat as a pig.''
Anyone who is easy-going is ``as slow as molasses in January.'' Someone who is not exactly on target ``can't hit the side of a barn.'' That is, unless ``he closed the barn door before the horses are out.''
People who don't tend to agree with us have ``bats in the belfry.''
The trite expressions even have crept into our weather reports. Storms usually bring the ``raining of cats and dogs.'' Nights are often ``as black as coal.'' Fog can be ``as thick as pea soup.'' It also can get ``as hot as blazes.''
Becoming seriously involved in a project means ``getting down to brass tacks.'' Those who aren't able to do this are ``fly-by-nighters.''
There are some people to whom you ``can give and inch and they'll take a mile.'' There are also the ones who ``if you give them enough rope they'll hang themselves.'' But these are as rare ``as three dollar bills'' or ``hen's teeth.''
From the time I was ``knee-high'' to a grasshopper I heard almost everyone express faith in the sweet corn legend.
There are hundreds of other vernacular horse-and-buggy phrases that have lingered over the years. As trite as they may be, we still use them to spice up our language. They are so easily remembered that they often unintentionally slip into our conversations ``as clean as a whistle.''