(Oh / my) sweet summer child

Post(Oh / my) sweet summer child by **site23** » Tue Oct 24, 2023 5:14 pm

Over in the Annoy Thread, there's been a vicious, caustic debate* about the phrase "core memory."

* a few posts, very friendly

The phrase "core memory" starts to appear in the written record in the 1950s, but it's about computers. It refers to magnetic-core memory (a type of RAM).

It's only since the movie Inside Out that it has been used to refer to a formative memory -- a big event that bounces around in a person's subconscious and shapes their personality. Inside Out effectively invented the phrase in that usage -- that is to say, if you see people on Twitter talking about "unlocking a new core memory", they're unwittingly referencing the movie. It's never been a real psychology phrase.

Along similar lines...

(I'm sure you all see where this is going, but try not to overthink it, go with your gut instinct...)

Where and when do you think the phrase "(oh / my) sweet summer child" originated? If you haven't heard this being used by the most annoying people on Twitter, lucky you -- it's an insult, or at least it's condescending, that means you think someone is naive or hasn't experienced real hardship.

Most of us will know it came up in an episode of Game of Thrones. But is it the kind of thing your grandma would say to tut at you when you were small? Does it make you think of Scotland? Or perhaps a bit further afield, do you associate it with the south and/or midwest regions of the US?

PostRe: (Oh / my) sweet summer child by **Cuttooth** » Tue Oct 24, 2023 5:24 pm

No way it's solely a Game of Thrones thing. I won't believe it.

I didn't know this was from Game of Thrones!

I assumed it was related to the abundance of resources in a baby's first few months, and/or alignment with school entry (summer born kids being the youngest in their class). I have been living a lie

PostRe: (Oh / my) sweet summer child by **Cuttooth** » Tue Oct 24, 2023 5:33 pm

OrangeRKN wrote:I didn't know this was from Game of Thrones!

I assumed it was related to the abundance of resources in a baby's first few months, and/or alignment with school entry (summer born kids being the youngest in their class). I have been living a lie

This was always my assumption.

PostRe: (Oh / my) sweet summer child by **rinks** » Tue Oct 24, 2023 5:36 pm

I’ve never heard it before, so I’m entirely willing to believe it’s a new fad.

PostRe: (Oh / my) sweet summer child by **Tsunade** » Tue Oct 24, 2023 5:36 pm

I'm sure I heard someone say that when I was a kid.

There's that nursery rhyme that starts "Monday's child is..." and works through the week which is kind of similar, I think I've subsconciously associated it with that and that's why it sounds old.

PostRe: (Oh / my) sweet summer child by **site23** » Tue Oct 24, 2023 5:39 pm

OrangeRKN wrote:I didn't know this was from Game of Thrones!

I assumed it was related to the abundance of resources in a baby's first few months, and/or alignment with school entry (summer born kids being the youngest in their class). I have been living a lie

I'm not sure that it will be the case on here, but there is a large group of people who are convinced it's a widespread old-fashioned phrase with exactly that kind of folk etymology, and they often have vivid memories of hearing it in childhood.

But as far as the written record goes, it only seems to show up post-1996...

PostRe: (Oh / my) sweet summer child by **rinks** » Tue Oct 24, 2023 5:40 pm

Specific meaning:
In the novel A Game of Thrones, a young boy is called a "sweet summer child" by an old woman, since seasons last for years in the novel's world and he has yet to experience winter.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sweet_summer_child

PostRe: (Oh / my) sweet summer child by **Octoroc** » Tue Oct 24, 2023 5:42 pm

Never heard of it and 'core' memory is bollocks too.

Sorted.

PostRe: (Oh / my) sweet summer child by **Tomous** » Tue Oct 24, 2023 5:43 pm

If there is no written record before 1996 then that decides for me, it's a Game of Thrones thing.

PostRe: (Oh / my) sweet summer child by **Lime** » Tue Oct 24, 2023 5:44 pm

I'm old enough to have been around 'back then' (1970's) and it wasn't a thing at the time, at least in my experience.

There is something about the wording that makes it sound like a kind of hippyish 1960's thing, but I don't think it was.

PostRe: (Oh / my) sweet summer child by **jiggles** » Tue Oct 24, 2023 5:46 pm

I always thought “summer child” was a Game of Thrones invention because they say it all the time and they have that weird multi-year season thing going on so it’s very unique to the lore. Summer children are generally thought to be blissfully ignorant or naive as to the ways of the world because they lived their formative years in times of plenty, while winter children are hardier, more world-wary due to their tough childhoods.

“My sweet summer child” on the other hand I thought was just an internet invention. A reference to GoT but not a quote. Not a common phrase in Westeros dialect but more a thing nerds say to try to sound condescending. But I might be wrong on that. Maybe Lysa says it about Sansa or something but I can’t recall it being so ubiquitous as to warrant its meme status.

I've heard my sweet summer child in TMWRNJ, and that aired in the 90s.

PostRe: (Oh / my) sweet summer child by **Knoyleo** » Tue Oct 24, 2023 5:51 pm

Oh my!

Last edited by rinks on Tue Oct 24, 2023 6:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Victor Mildew wrote:I've heard my sweet summer child in TMWRNJ, and that aired in the 90s.

I thought of that too, with the condescending way it’s apparently used. It was a similar phrase, but I don’t think it was exactly that.

‘Sweet, innocent child”, maybe?

I've heard it used in a patronising way on the internet, but I don't recall ever hearing it growing up or anything. I've never seen GoT either, so I couldn't say where it came from.

PostRe: (Oh / my) sweet summer child by **Jenuall** » Tue Oct 24, 2023 6:20 pm

My grandparents used to say this all the time, but now that you mention it I don't think I've ever really heard other people saying it, you know. But when I was a kid it was absolutely ubiquitous, it was part of every day and so many of my most profound childhood memories are attached to that phrase.

I remember when I was little my pet dog Scarry had to be put down, but my family told me that he went to stay on a farm, and I believed them for years. "How's Scarry doing on the farm Gran?" I used to ask. And they would all just look at me with a sadness in their eyes and shake their heads.

Eventually they had to fess up and let me know the truth. "Sit down," she told me "it's time for you to understand what really happened to Scarry." So I sat down next to her and she said "I'll give it to you straight like a pair cider that's made from 100% pears, you're a sweet summer child and we had your dog given a lethal injection".

28 years old I was.

PostRe: (Oh / my) sweet summer child by **Pedz** » Tue Oct 24, 2023 6:22 pm

Prety sure I've heard it from things, not Game of Thrones as it's shite and I've not seen it used on Twitter.

PostRe: (Oh / my) sweet summer child by **Moggy** » Tue Oct 24, 2023 6:37 pm

People in 1610: "Star crossed lovers?" "strawberry float off, that was made up by that Shakespeare wanker a decade or so ago!"

(Oh / my) sweet summer child

That annoying phrase "my sweet summer child" has been around forever, right?

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