They bought the farm
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Discoveries | 11 comments
I spent the day with Mike Murphy in Saffron Walden. I’m decorating his house in small bursts. Usually Anna is assisting but she couldn’t make it today. Mike is from San Diego, was married to my friend Clare and has lived in the UK for years. He is different, coming from another culture.
As I sipped an excellent coffee spiked with a spicey dash of his patent chilli cinnamon syrup, Mike discussed lunch.
“I want you to see my park. I have adopted it. We’ll picnic on lunch of Jamie’s potato, avocado and spring onion salad.” He opened the fridge door to show me the bowl.
“And my membrillo Manchego sandwiches.” I added. We all contribute to lunch. A great unspoken excuse to try and impress each other.
I spent the morning hanging in a star shape, from a tall ladder. Cutting in (painting the fine line between wall and ceiling) on a stairwell is exacting work, involving angled brushes lashed to long poles. Finally we packed up our picnic and within seconds were walking down a narrow path, banked with box hedges, aromatic santolina and lemon balm.
Bridge End Gardens were largely laid out in 1840 by Francis Gibson and is a great example of Victorian compartmentalised garden design. The pleasure gardens received a lottery grant and have been beautifully restored. There are six listed buildings on the site, fabulous statues and lots of quirky details – I loved the lookout post located over a mature yew hedge. We briefly explored the Italian garden, the wild wooded area complete with tame squirrels and examined the entrance to the maze, with its pleached limes and wild beastie statues guarding the gate. We settled near a statue of a peacock and laid out our picnic.
“Beyond that hedge is the American Memorial.”
I immediately thought military but when he added, “for the ones that bought the farm,” I was intrigued. Imagining tall smiling Americans wearing 10 gallon hats driving tractors on a vast model farm in the fields around Saffron Walden. They must have been successful and influential too, if they had their own memorial.
“What farm?”
Mike was surprised.
“Haven’t you heard the expression? He bought the farm means that he died.”
It reminded me of the first time I heard the expression “they let the cat out of the bag.” I was five and concerned about the cat and wondered why it was in a bag at all. I can still remember the squirmy embarrassment as the old lady explained exactly what the phrase meant.
As we packed up our lunch and walked over to the memorial we mulled over whether this was a universal expression. Some pretty teenage girls were sitting inside the memorial; they were silent as we looked at the long lists of names of the men that never returned home.
When I got back I Googled “bought the farm.” Apparently it’s an American expression, coined during WW2. Loads of servicemen dreamt of buying land after the war. If they were killed in action, they had ‘bought the farm’ in the great blue yonder. There is also an interesting analysis of the phrase here www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/72850.html.
I had a great day with Mike. Something magical happens when I lift a paint-filled brush. It is almost as if I am painting into other peoples’ lives.
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Hi there – this reminds me of something my Grandmother would say frequently: “What in the Sam Hell?” I was always sad for this man named Sam who apparently was in hell. Turns out, she mean Sam Hill (check out Wikipedia) but what she really meant was DAMN. Unfortunatly, I never found this out till There Was The Internet, which happend way after Gram passed away. I would have loved to kid her about it.
Hi Sara,
Apparently Mike’s mother uses it a lot. I find that different cultures are fascinating. It needn’t be different countries more often than not it is different counties!
Your posts are always so interesting and keep me hooked in. I had never heard this phrase before.
Sara from farmingfriends
Hi Pat,
Bridge End Gardens is a real gem.
Hi Celia,
Danny had heard of the expression. Perhaps it was in an American movie.
The gardens are delightful. Can’t wait to go back and explore further.
Hi Joanna,
Mike’s recipe is in the next post! I haven’t tried the chocolate but I have seen it in Mike’s house.
Hi Mike,
How interesting that your grandpa bought the farm in real life. Kansas, wasn’t that where the farm was at the beginning of The Wizard of Oz?
Hi Amanda,
Mike’s syrup is great, well worth trying.
I enjoy finding the derivation of phrases too.
Hi Kate,
I reckon the phrase was used by the generation that fought in the war.
My painting takes me to some interesting places.
Hi Fiona,
It sounds as if you had a wonderful day, painting and picnicking and learning a new expression. It is one that was used here too, though it isn’t common anymore. I knew what it meant from school … we must have read a poem or a story where the expression was used.
I’d love to see some of your painting work!
What a great day!
I’d never heard of that saying either but I have a few books on phrases and sayings and where they originate from. I find it fascinating.
Mike’s coffee and salad sounds delicious. You know my experiences of manchego and membrillo. My thoughts on it are the same as raw celery which is really bad. Maybe I should try the immersion technique and eat them every day for a month. Possibly not…
Hi Fiona. Sounds like the expression “bought the farm” was quite appropriate. I never knew where it came from and now I do. Thanks for that. Polio shortened the leg of my grandfather and kept him out of the war. Ironically he did buy a farm 😉 in rural Kansas; admittedly not as vast and blue as the ones dreamt of my those brave men who gave their lives. He has since sold the farm and, at the ripe age of 91, is now living in Osage County. Anyway, thanks for yesterday. By the way… that lighter shade of green is growing on me. 🙂
Fiona, what a lovely post … and a great spot for a picnic (btw, GREAT sandwich – only a foodie!).
What really intrigues me is your throwaway line about the chilli cinnamon syrup … can we buy it? do we make it? I CAN’T WAIT … have you tried chilli chocolate? this has to be something similar (and probably similarly addictive, although, usually, I can take or leave chocolate no problem)
Joanna x
HI Fiona. I’ve never heard the expression “bought the farm” either, but suppose “he bought it” is the same thing, I never considered where the expression came from before.
But I have found Bridge End Gardens – there was a TV programme with Chris Beardshaw helping to renovate the Dutch Garden – and we thought ‘we know Saffron Walden, but we’ve never found those gardens!’ So we trundled down there and found a secluded entrance into a magical place – what a dream place to have your lunch break.
Thanks Fiona! Nice blog to read and yes it is a phrase we use and I haven’t heard in years. Sounds like a lovely picnic spot.