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
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I’ve never heard of that.
I’ve heard the term used that way before but it’s not a common saying around here.
Never heard of that.
These are the only pallets I know.
That’s a new use of ‘pallet’ for me. To me a pallet is a wooden shipping platform.
I have never heard that term for that.
I’ve never heard anyone call making a bed on the floor that. It must be super regional.
Have heard it all the time in Texas.
All friends and family would 100% know what I mean.
Nope, never heard this. But apparently a pallet can mean like a medieval straw bed so that kind of makes sense.
I am from Georgia, and I have never heard anyone use this term in that sense.
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.
I’ve always heard/used this term. Didn’t know it was a regional thing.
We used that term when I was a kid in the 80s.
I think it’s an old term. I know it, I think from my grandparents? Grandpa was from Georgia, grandma from Indiana.
I’ve heard it often in Texas
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
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.
Slept on them all the time growing up in Louisiana.
It’s used in Tennessee for sure
I slept on pallets many times when I was a kid, usually at my grandparents’ houses. East Texas.
I have heard of that
Very regional.
Next ask her what a toboggan is.
I heard that a lot growing up but I have always lived in the South
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.
From central indiana and knew instantly what this was.
I’ve only seen it used in historical fiction. I didn’t know it was a term that was still in use.
It’s in common use in NC
Here’s a video of Gillian Welch singing Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor
Indiana here. I grew up using the word pallet just like you described.
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
From North Carolina. Definitely called putting a bunch of blankets on the floor “making a pallet”
I would know what you are talking about but it’s not something I would say.
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.
From NYC but family is originally southern. Definitely heard of ‘making a pallet’ before.
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.
I grew up in the south and that’s what we did for sleepovers!
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.
Never heard of it. And I’ve made them for my kids for movie nights
I’ve heard it before and know what it means but it’s not really a word I use
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
The only thing I know them from is old historical style works, where beds are generally a ‘fancy’ and rich thing.
I’ve never heard that term. Growing up as kids we were told to go make a nest, like in front of the TV.
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.
Born in Texas, raised in TN, only pallet i know of is wood
From Louisiana, and that’s how we use the word. Also, the wood ones.
I’m from CA and currently on a trip. We made a pallet for one of our kids in our hotel room.
We say that here in eastern NC!
Mississippi and we say pallet all the time.
I’ve heard that my whole life. I was born and raised in Texas. I’ve slept on many pallets.
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.
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.
We do pallets! I’m from MS
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.
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.
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
That’s what my family called them
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)