Dad uses this expression to describe someone that is very tough, funny most of his friends could be described as tough guys. Here's a poem that I must have read a hundred times growing up at my house - It was what I came to think of when I thought of tough guys - not those guys that get in fights or act all tough - but the people (lots of tough women) that keep on going when normal people would quit - that's tough.
The Quitter
When you're lost in the Wild,
and you're scared as a child,
And Death looks you bang in the eye,
And you're sore as a boil,
it's according to Hoyle
To cock your revolver and . . . die.
But the Code of a Man says: "Fight all you can,
"And self-dissolution is barred.
In hunger and woe, oh, it's easy to blow . . .
It's the hell-served-for-breakfast that's hard.
"You're sick of the game!" Well, now that's a shame.
You're young and you're brave and you're bright.
"You've had a raw deal!" I know — but don't squeal,
Buck up, do your damnedest, and fight.
It's the plugging away that will win you the day,
So don't be a piker, old pard!
Just draw on your grit, it's so easy to quit.
It's the keeping-your chin-up that's hard.
It's easy to cry that you're beaten — and die;
It's easy to crawfish and crawl;
But to fight and to fight when hope's out of sight —
Why that's the best game of them all!
And though you come out of each gruelling bout,
All broken and battered and scarred,
Just have one more try — it's dead easy to die,
It's the keeping-on-living that's hard.
1 comment:
Malcolmism and John Prine lyric too. From the song......"That's the Way the World Goes Round."
......Had muscles in his face, ain't ever been used. Thinks he owns half of the town. Starts drinking heavy, gets a big red nose. Beats his old lady with a rubber hose. Takes her out to dinner and buys her new clothes .... That's the way the World Goes Round.
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