Tongue Twisters

At some point most children learn to say or at least hear the Nursery Rhyme "Jack Sprat". In case you have forgotten, it goes like this:
Jack Sprat could eat no fat,
His wife could eat no lean.
So, between the two of them,
They licked the platter clean.
Silly words seem to entertain children. There must be something in our psyche which needs to be released in humor. Whether it originates initially because something in our mind needs to reduce stress or the neurons in our brain get a "hiccup", I do not know. Perhaps it is just that being with children makes us want to be childish.

When I was very young my older sister's husband would regale us with silly rhymes and foolish sayings. He did this when we were passengers in his car. Once while driving past some people who were walking down a country road, he leaned his head out the window and sang, " I feel like HELLLLLLLping some poor soul". It had the intended effect as we would double up in laughter.

An incident occurred when I was around five years old which must have been a "hiccup" in my neurons as it certainly was not intended. I was at our barn with my father and he sent me into the house with a message for my mother. He needed a little bill book in which he kept records. No doubt I had been told to rush into the house with the message. I was told years later that this is what I said " Mother, mother, daddy needs the bull bick, the bull bick" It took some deciphering to figure out what my father needed.

Another example of my "hiccups" was in reference to Ronald Reagen's favorite snack which he kept on his desk in the oval office. I called them "belly jeans". Well, yesterday it happened again. This is how it came down. I was standing in the church fellowship hall having hot coffee and a cookie. I was talking to my good friend Lou. I do not see her often and we had to soon leave to be in the sanctuary on time. We were blocking the way of her husband as he wanted to pass and had hot coffee in his hands. I stepped back thinking he was clear and he kept coming, I kept stepping back. He said "Are you afraid I'm going to hit you". I said "No, I didn't want to spill the "cot hoffee" on you.

I really wish I knew what causes me to twist my words like that. Thankfully it does not happen often, actually years apart. There have been other examples, I just cannot think of them right now. There may be a name for this strange language glitch. If anyone out there knows how to explain this I would really like to know. It can be embarrassing to have the gears slip in my head and come up with silly words. Since I have been doing this for almost 80 years, and it does not happen on a daily, weekly, monthly or even yearly basis, it must not be harmful to my health !!