Barbara’s Blog Carnival -Childhood Expressions
Which “childhood expression” to “pick” I wonder?
So I thought I’d change the focus from my typical topic to an atypical one.
The first comes from my elder daughter, back in the days when I was a single parent when everything was overwhelming. [hindsight really is a gift!]
Back then she was growing up much too fast just like many children of divorced parents. We read a great deal together, from the board books, baby books, picture books, onwards and upwards to independence. I had never liked ‘baby talk’ and so I used the same words and style of language that I do with everyone else. She had a great vocabulary as is so often the case when children are surrounded by adults: my parents, my siblings, my friends.
The details are hazy, so many years later but I remember that feeling of cozy harmony, the intimacy between parent and child when a family consists of only two units. If a parent is solely responsible for a single child a devotion develops such that communication is instinctive, words are hardly necessary – a separate world of understanding.
Madonna and child – perfection.
Maybe it was bedtime, perhaps we were at the beach, or playing hang-man? Yes! Hangman, all those years ago…
“That can’t be right dear?”
“It is.”
“I think you’ve left the ‘h’ out by mistake.”
“It doesn’t have an ‘h’.”
“Weren’t you trying to spell Bahamas?”
“Bahamas? No, it’s bajamas.”
“What’s bajamas?”
“Bajamas… you know… you wear them when you go to bed at night.”
Now if we’d lived in America then, no such confusion would have arisen, that’s why we stick to PJ’s now.
A few decades prior to this exchange, I had my own mishap with my mother, along quite similar lines. Being the dunce of the family I progressed from comic books, to Enid Blyton, to Agatha Christie and I’ve been stuck in ‘whodunnit’ mode ever since. On one particularly balmy summer’s day, [in England!] I was lying on the grass at my mother’s feet, devotional dog that I was, as I read the latest blood curling thriller some 45 years after it was first written. My mother sat in a deck chair, knitting, as only mother’s can, as she fought with a particularly complicated lacy pattern, which involved a great deal of counting and under breath cursing. Yards of fine yarn were testament to the unraveling of mistakes.
“Mum?” [I was then English]
“Hmm?”
“Can you tell me what this word means? I see it on nearly every page.”
“What is it?”
“Determinded.”
“Determinded? I’ve never heard of it.”
“Oh.”
“Can’t you guess from the context?”
“No.”
“Read me a sentence.”
“Hermione Herringbone was determinded to defeat her tormentors.”
“Are you sure it isn’t…Spell it for me.”
“D.E.T.E.R.M.I.N.D.E.D.”
“Really? How odd. Here, pass it over, let me take a peek, hmm, lets see…’Daphne Dalrymple was …’ that’s not ‘determinded’ that’s ‘determined.’”
What can I say? It’s genetic.
April 19th, 2010 at 8:24 pm
Perfectly expressed, My Dear Maddy!
Barbara´s last blog ..Morgan’s Wonderland
April 19th, 2010 at 9:03 pm
Yes, well, one might argue you’re still a bit English!
I was just laughing tonight at how my son thinks the word “ahead” is “in head.”
Jocelyn´s last blog ..
April 19th, 2010 at 9:34 pm
I hereby proclaim you to be an honorary Scotch-Irish person, allowed to say “drownded” and to “axe” questions. You are just a probationer, though. For full membership in the fraternity, you are going to have to exhibit some badass gratuitous violence. Dang sissy Anglos, afraid to let their badass Saxon out!
April 19th, 2010 at 10:44 pm
Oh, yes, perfectly spot on !
Ro´s last blog ..Piss poor
April 19th, 2010 at 11:08 pm
Hilarious! And I love the drawings!
Tanya @ TeenAutism´s last blog ..Taking the Evening Off
April 20th, 2010 at 4:54 am
I tend to insert letters in words pretty often. I’ll read a sentence, makes no sense, read it again, still makes no sense and eventually realize that I’m reading the wrong word – or even inserting words. It’s quite embarrassing actually.
Jazz´s last blog ..Nature vs. …. ME.
April 20th, 2010 at 5:42 am
perfecto!
furiousball´s last blog ..my little biker
April 20th, 2010 at 5:36 pm
LOL too funny
Funny sometimes how our brain tricks us into thinking we are seeing something we aren’t.
April 21st, 2010 at 2:52 am
Oh, that is too sweet for words (smile). Like my own mother, I am terrible guilty of using substitute words for the real article, despite suffering the embarrasment myself as a kid, innocently copying inappropriate words for items, I find myself now passing this on to my kids.. my youngest came home the other week to accusingly announce, “That whizzy-rounder is called a BLENDER, mum!” (Oops.)
April 23rd, 2010 at 5:11 pm
That’s hilarious, because when I was little, I thought it was “determinded” too. I still think about what determinded might mean…
Joeymom´s last blog ..This is Joey 2010
April 25th, 2010 at 9:35 am
Love this… it makes me think about how I am often unable to say cinnamon, without stuttering! Is it a potato or a patoato?
Glad you posted for the carnival!
Stacey Harris ´s last blog ..just pictures today
April 25th, 2010 at 9:36 am
lol It is genetic–but I think those particular genetics are rather universal.
Stephanie´s last blog ..A Reason Not to Medicate
April 25th, 2010 at 1:07 pm
How I LOVE This
I am also a big time Enid Blyton and Agatha christie fan
( even now )
In fact I am curretntly re-reading
Death in the Clouds
and
Fifth term at Malory towers
April 25th, 2010 at 5:30 pm
I love this. As a kid I used to make up words when I was not satisfied with those available to me in the English language. In fact, I still do that as an adult
My niece insisted for years that what she wore to bed was a “night up” (she thought we were calling them “night downs” instead of night gowns and protested by switching it to up).
April 25th, 2010 at 11:23 pm
I used to say ‘egglant’ instead of elegant. I still get some words muddled up and N3S does the same.
DJ Kirkby´s last blog ..Della says OMG!
May 2nd, 2010 at 8:15 pm
Love it! And the artwork with it is hilarious
.
danette´s last blog ..Visiting the vet
June 17th, 2010 at 9:56 pm
Dorothy Leigh Sayers was the only person who ever did whodunnits right. After reading all of her stuff, everything else in that line seems, well, not very good.
She was also capable of appreciating a good motorcycle.