A Bowl of Cherries

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Meaning:

A Bowl of Cherries is used when talking about happy circumstances; life is good. However, it can also be used ironically when things are not going as good as they should.

“Well, isn’t that a bowl of cherries”

Origin:

This idiom started out as life is just a bowl of cherries, then later shortened to the phrase a bowl of cherries. It was used back then to express life is good.

The earliest written record of life is just a bowl of cherries was in the column New York Life, by Grant Dixon, published in The Tampa Daily Times (Tampa, Florida) 1928:

“…And why not?” asked the star manicurist of one of the big uptown hotels the other day. “The life of a manicurist on one of the big liners is just a bowl of cherries, my boy, just a bowl of cherries with whipped cream on the side.”

When we hear “life is like a bowl of cherries” everyone remembers the song written by Ray Henderson and lyrics by Lew Brown, published in 1931. Ethel Merman introduced this song in George White's Scandals of 1931.

As time went on, we saw this phrase go from meaning life is great, you have no worries, to having a sour twist as an irony, nothing is going right, life isn’t a bowl of cherries.

Example:

Today we can hear it both ways as a positive or turned into a negative.

A positive sentence example is:

“I got a promotion at work and got engaged in the span of a week! Life is just a bowl of cherries these days!”

On the other hand, a negative sentence example is:

“I don’t have enough money to pay the rent, my car needs repairing, and my husband just got laid off. Life is just a bowl of cherries.”

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