oopsie.
although, in fairness to me, i try really hard to keep it clean around the kidlets. and she did say "dammit!" in exactly the same tone that her father does. not that i'm pointing fingers or anything.
her little outburst was like a proustian madeleine for me (albeit auditory): it immediately transported me back to my grandparents' house. my father's people were a polite lot, but as my mother has said, her parents could barely speak without swearing. it's not much of an exaggeration to say that every other word out of their mouths was hell, shit, damn, ass or some variation of those four:
- "how the hell are you?"
- "move your fat ass!"
- "goddammit, did i clean that house: i went through it like shit through a tin horn!" (this one always mystified me, but i didn't dare ask for clarification.)
i believe my grandfather's given name might have been "goddammit, bud!" because that's the only way i can remember my grandmother addressing him.
things would grow especially heated around the holidays and the ritual roasting of the bird. oh, the turkey wars! the carnage, the bloodshed, the terror! (but dinner was delicious.) i remember one year how my dad wrote a little play about my grandparents and the turkey, and he and my mom acted it out in front of us all as best they could in between their own gasping laughs. the climax came, as it always did in real life, with the argument about whether the red thingie popping out of the bird really signified doneness or not. my grandparents were NOT amused.
despite all this (and despite the fact that in later years, i would come to believe that my mother had named my brother and me "dammit, david!" and "jesus, jennifer!"), my mom never heard the really dirty words. her parents never dropped the f-bomb, at least in front of her. hence this naive exchange on the eve of my birth, when my parents were prepping the new baby's room:
my dad: "f---ing wallpaper! f---ing wallpaper paste! f---ing (insert decorating task here)!"
my 8++++ months pregnant mom: "what does that word mean?"
dad: "what word?"
mom: "f---ing. what does it mean?"
dad: (collapse into helpless laughter)
have a helluva good day, goddammit.
1 comment:
This must have been the way my hubby grew up. I'm not sure his aunt can utter a sentence w/o the f-word. She's 80 something & it still freaks me out! I believe my father said damn once or twice while I was growing up. and that was about it for cursing in my family.
So, dh thinks it's perfectly normal to say WHATEVER WHENEVER but usually while watching the Cubs. I gave up trying to stop him & just taught the kids that they are NEVER allowed to say ANYTHING daddy ever says. Of course, the first time my son, probably age 4, said pain in the ass, it was in front of my father who just about had a stroke.
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