It took me a bit to recall any slogans or mottoes used in my family, but they've started to come, so I've started to type.
"Kwicherbellyakin" - I don't know if that's spelled correctly, according to Grandma Jolley's wooden plaque that used to hang above one of the doors in her kitchen. It was more than a plaque, though. If Grandma put a plate of odd-lookin' food in front of us to eat and our faces showed it, she'd say it. "Ah, quit your belly achin' and eat." Or, another slogan would come out;
"Eat it and shut up!" - There were many times when we'd ask Grandma Jolley what she just put in front of us and called lunch (or dinner). She'd employ this wonderful phrase and we were expected to comply.
"Supergobsloptious" - This was Grandpa Jolley's phrase. He'd use it when he had a meal that just hit the spot. It also often applied to the sweet portion of the meal, whether his formula 52 (or 47 or 23. . .) jam mixture on bread or an ice cream dessert chaser. When Grandpa thought it was that good, it wasn't just good, but Supergobsloptious!
"My sufficiency is suffanciful" or "My shimmee shirt and pants is full" - this saying came with a story. As good as I can remember it, Grandpa Jolley would share a story of his childhood where he begged his mother to eat dinner at a friend's house. Worried his manners (or intermittent lack thereof) would reflect poorly on her, she made him promise that once he had eaten his fill, he would politely decline more by saying, "no thank you. My sufficiency is suffanciful." He agreed and his mom let him go. When he got around to being done, he did his best to obey his ma and told his friend's mother, "no more, thank you. My shimmee shirt and pants is full."
"How are you?" "Oh, not much better." "Really? Why not?" "Well, it doesn't get much better than this." - This was a frequent opening conversation one would expect from Grandpa Jolley. Even if you knew he was sicker than a dog, he'd never let on as such. To the end of his life he claimed he was a young teenager ("just made it through pooberty," he'd say), and I never doubted it.
"Contention is of the devil" - Growing up, this scriptural lesson was said by my mother more often than I'm sure she wanted to. My brothers and I would start to argue, and Mom would chime in, "contention is of the devil."
I can still remember, as though I was there now, the times and places I'd hear these memorable phrases. And guess what? I still use some of them, too!