Random Thought: Southern Sneeze Response Progression

[kaasirpent]

One to four sneezes: "Bless you!" (or "Gesundheit!", but that's far less frequent)

Eight to twelve sneezes: "Allergies acting up?"

Fifteen sneezes: "Are you gonna be okay?"

Twenty or more sneezes: "Bless you!" (said with much more authority...and maybe a little fear)

:)

Comments

[craftsman.livejournal.com]

Then there is our uncultured friend's response: "Get any on you?"

[bigmeanie.livejournal.com]

At what point do they start blessing your heart?

[craftsman.livejournal.com]

When you sneeze ON somebody. :)

[kaasirpent]

craftsman's response aside, "Bless your heart!" or the slightly more deep-southern, "Bless your little heart!" are generally reserved for sympathy or--ironically--"weasel words" or "erase phrases."

Person 1: My dog got run over.
Person 2: Oh, bless your heart! <hugs ensue>

Person 1: Person 3 failed his drivers test again.
Person 2: What is that, the fourth time?
Person 1: Yes, bless his heart.

Person 1: Person 2--bless her heart--doesn't have the sense God gave an ant.

Person 1: Well, I love Person 2, but--bless his heart--he can be a bit of a jerk.

"Bless his heart" in the latter two cases roughly correspond to "...but I don't mean that in a bad way." :)

[dorsai.livejournal.com]

Or as we used to say, "God blast you!"

And if you have someone sneezing, stopping, getting blessed, sneezing some more, stopping, getting blessed again, and so on, the proper response is "Bless you! Keep it up and you'll be the Pope."

[siercia]

In our family, it was always
1 - God Bless you
2 - God Bless you
3 - Aaaah, devil take you

and subsequent sneezes were ignored

[feuervogel]

Sometimes the final set is prefaced with "god": "God BLESS you!"

(Though for me, it's like, "geez, are you done yet?" I'm heartless.)