A few weeks ago, Steady and I were driving back from something and this car behind me was tailgating and I said "Geezel Petes!" at the car. Steady laughed and said he'd never heard that one before.
So then I wondered if it was something my sister and I said, you know, that we'd made up as an expression of frustration, or if it was something I'd picked up from my mom or grandma that one of them had dreamt up. (The women in my family are notoriously good at mangling English.) I asked a couple of people and they'd never heard anyone say "Geezel Petes"
Then last night we were out to dinner with my cousin and her husband, they're in town for a vacation, and my cousins's husband said it. He grew up in the same town I grew up in...
Is it a regionalism? Did I just pick the wrong people to ask? Did he maybe learn that one from my cousin? Have you ever heard anyone respond in frustration to something they think is outlandish by saying "geezel petes!"?
