My mom refuses to allow any of her children to be called by anything other than his or her full name. There is no Britt, Vicki, Tom, Chris- Only Brittany, Victoria, Thomas, and Christopher. Words that people tend to assign cute or more appropriate names to are called what they really are, maybe because she is in a medical field. Rather, in my family, it is not so much the phrases that we all have in common that contain a special meaning, it’s more of a mocking joke to guess what someone will say before it comes out.
Each person has certain phrases that I wait for in conversation, we all sit around at dinner or watching the football games and get into those familiar conversations that you seem to have every week, with just a slightly new original spin. Those looks get shared behind the speakers back of “Oh I know what’s coming next…” Then out it comes and everyone cracks up.
My grandma for instance is famous for “warshing” things. Clothes, dishes, cars, children… these don’t get washed, they get warshed. Why? I have no idea. For the same reason that she says pockorn rather than popcorn. And the same reason we all say “oh piddle” whenever she is in the room, just to mock her quaint habits.
My dad has the second most predictable phrases:
“Very nice,” not an uncommon phrase, it is just the way he says it, patronizing and masking something that is really not very nice, or usually when at a loss for any other descriptive phrase. He always raises the pitch of his voice and slows it down considerably in the wpm category, as though he feels if he takes longer to say it, he may actually change his mind about whatever he is referring to. Usually this has to do with gifts (most often gifts my grandmother gives him).
“Once Again” was also originated by my father. Lecture format is where this phrase comes up the most and in pretty much all arguments between child and parent in my family.
Ever catch yourself doing a parenting tactic you swore you would never do because you hated when your parents did it? Ha. Well “once again” is now one of those “oops I can’t believe I let it out, bite my tongue” phrases that creeps into my reasoning debates far too often.
Almost every lecture I have gotten in my life has a “once again,” actually probably more like 10 once agains strewn unromantically throughout the words replacing um, likes, and any other sort of interjection or connector phrase:
Once again, your homework is not done after practice. Once again, your room is a mess. I told this would happen, once again I’m right.
Well, the tables have turned and now my siblings and I use his tactic to make jokes:
Oh once again dad forgot to take out the trash. Once again the sky is blue. Once again A follows B...
The more I think about it, the more I realize that my dad is truly the instigator in our immediate family of words and phrases that we all mock and carry around on a daily basis. Our joking and sarcasm is a way of connecting with one another.
3 comments:
Hey Brittany. That's funny, my grandma said the samething about 'warshing up for dinner,' I actually put that same word in my blog because my dad got it from his mom. I think it's a midest term accent. Anyway, I loved the 'lecture' words that come out every time you would mess up. I think every father has a few of those up his sleeves, words that they repeat over and over so that you know your dad is serious. My dad would shake his finger a lot and tell my brother and i to stop antagonizing each other. I can still hear that word to this day. Well, back to your post. I liked how you turn your dad's phrase against him, it really points out to him that you were listening, so I guess it worked. I think parents deliberately use the same words to reinforce what they're telling you. Well, awesome post I was able to see a lot of dads like yours. See ya in class.
Brittany,
Your blog was really funny because I was able to relate to it on so many levels. Your dads nack for being and instigator of language is also my mom's same gift. She like your grandmother also says Warsh, and an assortment of other words to her liking and not how they actually are pronounced. My brother and I often find ourselves using the language of our parents, especially our mom and slapping our foreheads in disbelief.
That was a fun blog to read. I can relate all too well to the part about doing things your parents did that you swore you would never do! And I could relate to your grandma using funny pronunciations for things, because my grandma has her own style on pronunciation too! That was a really good blog!
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