Memoir Monday: Coining Family Words

Posted by Being Beth on Monday, October 31, 2011

 As a writer, I spend a lot of time eaves dropping on conversations when I'm out and about.  I like to sit at restaurants, malls, airports, and parks and just listen to people talk.  It helps me develop the characters for my stories.  Sometimes I hear a phrase that becomes a story.


One day, while sitting in a restaurant, three men sat at the table behind me.  They were good ol' Texas boys, and their sentences were laced with typical Texas Rancher colloquialisms.  Evidently the men were hungry and two of them grew impatient with the third as he mulled over the menu.  


"You decided what you want?" one man said.  "You've been staring at the menu like a cow stares at a new gate."  


I quickly dug through my purse for pen and paper.  That was a keeper phrase. Eventually, that sentence became a short story.  (I've posted it before, but I'll post it again at the bottom of this post).  


I also keep a list of "family words."  These are the unique words that a family uses in their conversations at home. Most of the time they are not words you find in a dictionary - their use and definitions have evolved through the family conversational history; often they come from young children who assign a name to something they can't identify. 


For example, one of my children (around the age of two) asked me repeatedly for Fawnies.  I did not know what a fawnie was.  That child asked me for fawnies for weeks and weeks, getting progressively frustrated with my ineptness at producing fawnies.  One day, I brought home a box of Raisin Bran cereal and my child grabbed the box and said, "Fawnie Fran!"  


Fawnies = Raisins.  From that point on, if someone wants raisins, they ask for Fawnies.  The word stuck.


Other words in our family:  


Narnies = the various toppings on pizza or the various ingredients in salads other than greens
(things are always better with lots of narnies).


 Pabba-Babba = Peanut Butter


Dabba-Pabba = Dr. Pepper


Bee-ya-baws = Jingle Bells


Fries (as in "I want to go to Fries") = McDonald's


Bet-a-betty = Spaghetti


Geberdeeze = Spaghetti (same stuff, different child)


Putz = picking up clutter in the house


PA = "Personal Appreciation" which is what the women of the house do when they put on make-up,  fix their hair, dress, etc.  "I've got to get my shower and do my PA."  


These words and phrases become "family speak." They require no explanation (except on blogs or when they are used outside the family).  


They add to the unique flavor of each family.  Like the blood that courses through our veins, these words unite us, set us apart, and become part of our special love language.


So what about you?


Do you like to eaves drop on conversations?


What funny phrases have you heard strangers say that cracked you up?


What are your favorite family words and what do they mean?


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


And, here's that short story I promised.  I changed the sentence containing that phrase to red:



Accelerated Abjudication
By: Beth Lahaie

Fletcher McConahue plodded through life. Decisions came slow to Fletch and it was all right by him. Pondering over making even the simple choice between smearing grape jelly or strawberry preserves on his morning toast proved worthwhile. Not that he cared about the flavor or texture, taking his time provided him with a sense of identity and pride.
Early on, Fletch’s ma stood up for him, singing his praises to their back fence neighbor when she came over for tea. “Fletcher might be slow, but when he settles on a thing, you can count on it being the right thing.”
His pappy, on the other hand, grumbled about his slowness. “Fletcher, you’re looking over them two pair of socks like a cow stares at a new gate. Hurry up and decide what you want.”
While he hung his pride on his ma’s words, his Pappy’s take on him stung like the dickens and the two never balanced themselves out in Fletch’s mind. From the moment his pappy compared him to a stupid old cow, the condemnation bounced around Fletcher’s mind and defined him for all time.
Fletch McConahue: bovine brained.
Sure, his pap called him worse things down through his growing up years, but this was the one that stuck with Fletch and it rankled. Truth be known, Fletch did make one quick decision in his life and his Pappy didn’t care for that one either.
Littered with rocks after the river flooded, the north field needed harrowing. When his pappy sent sixteen year old Fletch to do it, old Pappy stood along the fence the entire morning to make sure his son did the job right.
As Fletch swung the tractor around for the fifth row, he hit a sizeable stone that bent a disk on the cultivator. Swinging down, he grabbed a rock, and began beating the disk in an effort to straighten it.
Pappy stormed into the field, red-faced and arms pumping. Pushing Fletch aside, he lay down on the ground to assess the damage. With one hand on top and the other under the tilted saucer shaped blade, Pappy pushed against the cultivator. The heavy piece of equipment shifted in the soft earth and the blade sliced into his arm, crunched through the bone, and stopped just short of severing Pappy’s arm.
Fletch saw his father, heard his agonizing scream, then looked at his watch, noted that it was straight up noon. In record time, just under thirty seconds to be exact, Fletch made a decision, "I think I'll have bologna on rye."




 

Labels:

1 comments:

amusing post. My mom's grocery list always had "bana". Well, that's what we ended up calling bananas for the longest time. Silly and yet it stuck.

Joanne said...

October 31, 2011 5:05 PM  

Post a Comment

Newer Post Older Post Home

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)