Are you”pallets” just a southern thing?

r/

I am from Alabama and am babysitting a friend’s baby while I WFH. She is originally from Illinois. I told her I made him a “pallet” and she looked at me like I was crazy. I had to explain to her it’s just a bunch of blankets on the floor! Is this just a southern thing?

Edit: I don’t know how you got in the title. lol

Comments

  1. Arleare13 Avatar

    I’ve never heard of that.

  2. molten_dragon Avatar

    I’ve heard the term used that way before but it’s not a common saying around here.

  3. StupidLemonEater Avatar

    Never heard of that.

    These are the only pallets I know.

  4. Cheap_Coffee Avatar

    That’s a new use of ‘pallet’ for me. To me a pallet is a wooden shipping platform.

  5. machagogo Avatar

    I have never heard that term for that.

  6. ExtremePotatoFanatic Avatar

    I’ve never heard anyone call making a bed on the floor that. It must be super regional.

  7. IanLayne Avatar

    Have heard it all the time in Texas.

    All friends and family would 100% know what I mean.

  8. TsundereLoliDragon Avatar

    Nope, never heard this. But apparently a pallet can mean like a medieval straw bed so that kind of makes sense.

  9. Recent_Weather2228 Avatar

    I am from Georgia, and I have never heard anyone use this term in that sense.

  10. ProtozoaPatriot Avatar

    I’m in Maryland. I have no idea what you’re talking about.

    Around here a pallet is the wooden thing that goes under merchandise being shipped to a store.

  11. DonChino17 Avatar

    I’ve always heard/used this term. Didn’t know it was a regional thing.

  12. JoeMacMillan48 Avatar

    We used that term when I was a kid in the 80s.

  13. ABelleWriter Avatar

    I think it’s an old term. I know it, I think from my grandparents? Grandpa was from Georgia, grandma from Indiana.

  14. Allhoodintentions Avatar

    I’ve heard it often in Texas

  15. Tacoshortage Avatar

    Made pallets as a kid anytime we didn’t have enough sleeping bags or if we had people crashing on the floor. We did it ALL THE TIME.

    In Texas and Oklahoma

  16. Vesper2000 Avatar

    It’s a southern thing.

    For those unfamiliar, a “pallet” is a makeshift bed on the floor, like when you have people spend the night but don’t have enough places for them to sleep.

  17. MidC1 Avatar

    Slept on them all the time growing up in Louisiana.

  18. JerryCat11 Avatar

    It’s used in Tennessee for sure

  19. BouncingSphinx Avatar

    I slept on pallets many times when I was a kid, usually at my grandparents’ houses. East Texas.

  20. MartinNeville1984 Avatar

    I have heard of that

  21. vashtaneradalibrary Avatar

    Very regional.

    Next ask her what a toboggan is.

  22. FloridianPhilosopher Avatar

    I heard that a lot growing up but I have always lived in the South

  23. delilahhh_xx Avatar

    From Missouri and we always called a bunch of blankets on the floor a pallet, as well. I have a Cajun great grandmother though, so I wonder if that’s where my mom got it.

  24. iMakeUrGrannyCheat69 Avatar

    From central indiana and knew instantly what this was.

  25. Shot-Artichoke-4106 Avatar

    I’ve only seen it used in historical fiction. I didn’t know it was a term that was still in use.

  26. fraiserfir Avatar

    It’s in common use in NC

  27. Alexdagreallygrate Avatar

    Here’s a video of Gillian Welch singing Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor

  28. Sleepygirl57 Avatar

    Indiana here. I grew up using the word pallet just like you described.

  29. pimpletwist Avatar

    I say it and I’m from Southern California. My mom used to organize the luggage in the back of the station wagon so that one of us kids could lay back there and leave more room in the backseat. But she’s the only person I’ve known to say it

  30. chadbrochill90 Avatar

    From North Carolina. Definitely called putting a bunch of blankets on the floor “making a pallet”

  31. thebigbadwulf1 Avatar

    I would know what you are talking about but it’s not something I would say.

  32. yourlittlebirdie Avatar

    Huh, also southern here and I never realized this wasn’t a universal term.

    Pallet is the wooden thing for shipping too, but it also means a makeshift bed on the floor.

  33. burnednotdestroyed Avatar

    From NYC but family is originally southern. Definitely heard of ‘making a pallet’ before.

  34. SushiGirlRC Avatar

    Texas here. Wow, I haven’t heard that in decades! I probably would’ve been confused for a bit just because I never hear it used that way anymore. All of my elder relatives used it.

  35. chloeiprice Avatar

    I grew up in the south and that’s what we did for sleepovers!

  36. Penelope_Ann Avatar

    I used to make pallets as a kid. Loved getting my blankets & pillow to make a pallet in the living room & watch The Weather Channel. It’s a common word in Louisiana.

  37. im_in_hiding Avatar

    Never heard of it. And I’ve made them for my kids for movie nights

  38. Lockheed_CL-1201 Avatar

    I’ve heard it before and know what it means but it’s not really a word I use

  39. JesusStarbox Avatar

    There’s even a song.

    Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor
    Song by Gillian Welch ‧ 2003

    Make me down a pallet on your floor
    Make me down a pallet on your floor
    Make me down a pallet soft and low
    When I’m broke an’ I got no where to go
    Been hangin’ around with a good time friends of mine
    Hangin’ around with a good time friends of mine
    Oh, they treat me very nice and kind
    When I’ve got a dollar and a dime
    Weary blues everywhere I see
    Weary in blues everywhere I see
    Weary blues, honey, everywhere I see
    No one ever had the blues like me
    Way I’m sleepin’, my back and shoulders tired
    Way I’m sleepin’, my back and shoulders tired
    Come tomorrow, I’ll be satisfied
    If I can catch that fast train and ride
    So, make me down a pallet on your floor
    Make me down a pallet on your floor
    Make me down a pallet soft and low
    Babe, I’m broke and I got no where to go

  40. iceph03nix Avatar

    The only thing I know them from is old historical style works, where beds are generally a ‘fancy’ and rich thing.

  41. Desperate-Score3949 Avatar

    I’ve never heard that term. Growing up as kids we were told to go make a nest, like in front of the TV.

  42. citrusandrosemary Avatar

    When I was a kid in Indiana I heard the term pallet being used as making up a floor bed.

    Having lived in the southeast for over 20 yrs though, never. People will say they’ll make a bed for you in reference to the couch or floor.

  43. g3294 Avatar

    Born in Texas, raised in TN, only pallet i know of is wood

  44. BuildNuyTheUrbanGuy Avatar

    From Louisiana, and that’s how we use the word. Also, the wood ones.

  45. LemonSlicesOnSushi Avatar

    I’m from CA and currently on a trip. We made a pallet for one of our kids in our hotel room.

  46. Historical-Remove401 Avatar

    We say that here in eastern NC!

  47. laffydaffy24 Avatar

    Mississippi and we say pallet all the time.

  48. tikiwanderlust Avatar

    I’ve heard that my whole life. I was born and raised in Texas. I’ve slept on many pallets.

  49. bellafrances85 Avatar

    I grew up in Arkansas and that was what we called it too. And now that you ask, I realize I haven’t heard that term since moving out west decades ago.

  50. hornbuckle56 Avatar

    In South Ga, when you stayed at Grandmas with all the cousins, She would make a “Pallet” on the floor for the kids to sleep on. Very common term down here.

  51. C5H2A7 Avatar

    We do pallets! I’m from MS

  52. trinite0 Avatar

    I’m familiar with using the word "pallet" to mean a bed on the floor. There’s a great blues song about it, called "Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor." Listen to the Mississippi John Hurt version, and the Gillian Welch version too.

  53. Hanginon Avatar

    Yes, and It’s more of an "Old school" Southern/eastern appalachian/country thing that’s been culturally preserved over the generations since it’s first use is lost in history but was in common use in the early 1900s.

    It’s also been immortalized by bluesman Mississippi John Hurt in his classic 1928 recording.

  54. Visible-Shop-1061 Avatar

    I only know of it from the song "Make Me A Pallet On Your Floor" as sung by Mississippi John Hurt.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC18_XEAe2o

  55. John_Philips Avatar

    That’s what my family called them

  56. wooq Avatar

    Yes it’s a southern thing. As a non-southerner, I know the term from Mississipi John Hurt via Doc Watson via my parents’ bluegrass band.

  57. HVAC_instructor Avatar

    Born and raised in Indiana, I slept on many pallets growing up, as did some of my cousins from Illinois.

    What I really miss is the teleportation that took place when you fell asleep at a relatives house and woke up in your own bed.

  58. killer_corg Avatar

    I didn’t realize how regional this was…. It was just a term I heard so often, especially going to a friends house to spend the night. Make a pallet in the game room and play N64 or Dreamcast till 3am haha

  59. nothingbuthobbies Avatar

    If it makes you feel any better, that’s actually the original meaning of the word. We borrowed it from French in the 14th century, and it originally meant a simple bed.

  60. MrsBeauregardless Avatar

    I am from Maryland, and while I have not personally used “pallet” to mean an improvised bed on the floor, I would know what you meant, from reading books — just as I use the words “ottoman” or “footstool”, but if someone said “hassock”, I would recognize it as the same thing.

    I say “supper”, and it bugs my sister-in-law, who only says “dinner”, but to me “dinner” can be a mid-day meal, like Thanksgiving dinner, which everyone recognizes is correct, and I have never known anyone to serve it in the evening.

    It’s like, if I use the synonym, you do know what I am talking about.

  61. Quercus_rubra_ Avatar

    I’m from New Jersey, but I’ve known that definition for a while. I’m pretty sure I learned it from reading fantasy/adventure novels—those types of characters are always making pallet beds out of something or other lol!
    I now enjoy making a pallet on my back porch on nice days to take a comfy nap outdoors.

  62. whtevrnichole Avatar

    my mom and her siblings are from new york, but my grandparents are from alabama and making a pallet on the floor is so normal in my family.

    nothing like going to my grandparents house and making one in the den (occasionally in the hallway). two fluffy/thick comforters that are folded once, maybe a sheet or another blanket and the blanket to lay under. the sleep is different.

  63. Individual-Line-7553 Avatar

    I told my granddaughters that I was going to make them "pallets" on the floor in the playroom for their sleepover. The 4 year old thought I was making them a "palace". Drape enough quilts and sheets over chairs and your pallet is a palace, it seems. (Maryland)