Edna-isms, Part One

From my birth, I have listened to my mother's nonsensical stories and "turns of phrase."  I am trying to jot (on my iPad) as many of them as I can remember and I want to share a few here every week. There is no intended order to these items (in other words, the best are not necessarily first!).

1.  "We're/They're off like Shavey's wheel!"  This saying was used just before we were departing, usually from home.  I think Shavey was a real person whom my grandparents knew from their younger days in the Wayne County or Sevier County area. (Watch!  I'll hear about this garbled historical reference from my N. cousins because I think my grandfather N. used this expression, too.)

2.  "They're not all over to Provo!"  This was my grandmother N.'s expression when she would do something absentminded or strange and this was a reference to the state's mental hospital in Provo.

3.   "By a gnat's eyelash."  When you barely escaped something it was "by a gnat's eyelash" or when you barely made it somewhere on time, you were on time "by a gnat's eyelash."

4. "Gadfrey Hafen."  This was a cuss phrase that was used often and for all purposes!

5.  "Heavens to Murgatroid!"  This was a common phrase for Mom.  I didn't know it but it was the cartoon character Snaggletooth's catchphrase.