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| Johnie Stapp, the man who coined the word burts. |
Genetics certainly colors our lives from the inside out. We accept what can’t be changed, but strive to correct our ills. However, my sister, Jonya, and I have both inherited a flaw in our tongue that causes us to tangle words and sometimes tinkle! There’s a connection, just keep reading.
When we were quite
young my father, a golf pro, was already suffering pain in his shoulders and
elbows from years of swinging a golf club, hammering, building, and repairing
cars. One evening after dinner he stood
up to reach for another glass of water, and dropped the glass as he reached
toward the sink. Three sets of eyes
turned to see the calamity and then heard, “Dammit, my shoulder burts!”
His two daughters
and wife sat in silence, afraid to laugh or giggle, but what we heard and what
we saw eventually caused a total eruption of hysterics. As much as my dad
wanted to scream at us for our rude behavior, he could only join us in the
laughter. When the broken glass was cleaned up, a sigh of relief waffled across
our shoulders and at last dad explained, “What I meant to say was that my
shoulder hurts really bad.” Burts may
not be in the dictionary, but it certainly has held a place in our vocabulary
for over fifty years.
One day while
shopping and beginning to feel tired on our feet, my sister attempted to
explain our feeling, “There’s always a side down to any saturation.” Being
tired only added to our uncontrollable laughter, and then one of us felt a warm
trickle down a leg. Oh, my.
Not long ago, a
friend asked me about my houseplants that were so strangely shaped. I tried to
explain that my grandmother called them “Never Dies”, but the proper term is
cacculent.” She looked at me strangely, and my eyes searched my brain back in
forth questioning the words I uttered. I continued, “Cacculent, yes, that’s
either a cactus or a succulent. You decide.” I appeared as innocent as possible
with the newly coined word.
Driving somewhere
one day with my comical sister she began to chatter about shopping and what she
needed. “I need some new underwear that gives me some support." Since we were in Tulsa I suggested Zach’s Fifth Avenue. She thought about it a moment and replied, “No I’d rather go to Gloria’s
place?” She sat in thoughtful silence, “No, it's not Gloria's," still sighing and thinking, "It's Glorious Secret, for women like us."
"Yes," I laughed, "We'll keep it a secret."
She often makes
driving difficult for me, especially in new cities when I’m not sure where
places are. Needless to say, our GPS had never heard of A Glorious Secret nor Gloria’s
Secret, but we did manage to find Victoria’s Secret, and Victoria's Tea room.
Now the weather spins its own vocabulary and on winter days when the temperatures reach the 70's it is merely "twing" time, in between winter and spring.
My fit bit just buzzed which means it's time to gualk, or go for a quick walk with the dog on a twing day.
Please share your own funny word combinations in the comment box below.
