When I was growing up in the 1940's, we never heard any "bad words" at home or at school. Later in life I learned that when people do use those "bad words" it was an indication of frustration, and my attitude about using them began to soften- toward the user.
As a young lady I had picked up an expression while in college of saying "Oh hell" when something went wrong. It was such a habit that I did not even realize I was saying it. My new husband, who simply did not use coarse language, asked me to stop saying that as it was not ladylike. Of course I corrected that habit immediately, perhaps because I was so shocked to have my new husband ask me to!
When we were living in Maryland as a young couple we made friends with other teachers who came from different parts of the east. One couple in particular had three little girls and we visited a lot with them. He told a story once of being in Memphis Tenn for some occasion and he got on an elevator. The person who came on after him said "Will you mash 3"? This made us all laugh. He said that was when he knew he was in Tennessee. Certain words seem to emanate from particular regions of the country and he was a native of Tennessee.
It isn't often that you go into a doctor's office and end up making him laugh - when you did not intend to. But I did it once. When my doctor checked my blood pressure he said "Your blood pressure is a little high". I said that I had just come from the dentist and that would give anybody the "heebie-jeebies". When he stopped laughing, he said "Rose, you are delightful".
I did not laugh with him as I saw nothing funny in what I said, it was a word I used sometimes.
When I had been living in Maryland for almost a year, I was called home to Kentucky as my father had a stroke and I went home to help my mother. He was at home and did need a lot of care. It was a stressful time for my mother, my sister and me. We were all in the bedroom with him one day and were trying to change the sheets on his bed. I guess one of us did something that was out of logical order and we all began giggling which went on for too long. My father said to us "Now, let's maintain decorum". That brought us all back to cold reality. We were all so stressed it turned into giggles.
Words and the power of words have always fascinated me. If you search your memory for the things you remember and either feel encouraged to recall, or feel downcast to recall, the words you remember have some kind of power to still be in your memory.
On our public television here in Georgia, Charlie Rose interviews people who have some significance in the political, business, literary or entertainment world. It is my "go to" program for an interesting hour in the middle of the day. It makes for good company while I have my noontime lunch. What interests me most is the spoken word by the guests around his table. You are bound to hear something new which challenges you to want to know more. I used to love to hear William S. Buckley (founder of The National Review - in 1955) speak for his choice of words always intrigued me.
Nutritionists will say that you are what you eat. My mother used to say that you are what you read. I certainly believe that you are a product of your environment, what ever it may be. We are influenced by many things and we are prone to absorb language that we are exposed to. My childhood friend was raised in the mountains and used to say "Hidy" as a greeting. That is a word from Appalachia if ever there was one. Even though she was well trained in Music and was a performer all her life she still used that greeting even in old age. I rather admire her for it, as she felt perfectly at home greeting you with "Hidy", it was a word from her childhood and a rather affectionate one at that. It defined who she was. Amen!
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