Monday, April 7, 2008

Whatever Rubs Your Buddha

Luke got some new shoes the other day…lime green Crocs. He loves them. He frequently wears them around the house with nothing else on but his diaper. When we first brought them home, he wore them all day and could intermittently be heard repeating as he looked lovingly down at them, “piddy coot” (that’s ‘pretty cute’ for those of you who don’t speak Luke). Though he is pretty cute in his new shoes, his choice of words got me thinking about the things we say (and the things oft echoed back by little ones).

Adults sometimes don’t realize just how much kiddos pick up. When we play the Wii, Luke will often shout out in frustration, “Shoot!” or “Dang it!” and though it is hilarious to hear, in the back of my head I know he only says those things because Chris and I have said them too commonly. I still remember from my childhood, my dad saying every time we pulled into the driveway, “Home again, home again, jiggity jig”. Yeah, I have no idea, but it has stuck with me. That and the moment my sweet and mostly proper Grandmother swore in disgust about my stepmother’s brief stint in our family. My mouth gaped open, but she never apologized for it and it still makes me snort to this day.

High school seemed to be the time when the weirdest phraseology would crop up. Words would circulate around for a few months and then go off and die in the graveyard of idiotic things people say. For a time I could spasmodically be heard uttering things like ‘Holy Moly!’ and ‘Whatever rubs your Buddha’. And, courtesy of my cousin Ashton and my long-time friend Jason respectively, ‘Go suck an elf’ and ‘Boo for you’ also made their rounds. Second-rate Spanish insults were a favorite too. If you can’t tell, we didn’t make it into the cool crowd.


Conversations would sometimes go like this:

Me (in mock disgust): Holy Moly! No me gusta tu cara! Es muy feo. (Holy Moly! I don’t like your face. It is very ugly.)

Ashton (smiling): Ah, go suck an elf.

Me: I’m just messin’ with ya cuz.

Ashton: Yeah, well, boo for you.


What can I say, we were Einsteins in the making. I’d like to think that my vocabulary has improved as of late, but sometimes I’ll still pay occasional homage to simpler times with a jiggity jig or some elf suckage. So what sort of phrases have you all sent to the grave? Or was I the only one with such an amazing capacity for awesomeness?

3 comments:

erinfaun said...

I am so jealous that I can't be there hearing little Luke say slightly girly comments about his crocks. :) Your blog is one of the best parts of my work day! :)

Abby said...

Erin! I found your blog through Ben & Megan's. I'm glad to see you guys are doing well. I can't believe how big Luke is now!

I read this post a couple of weeks ago and wondered WHERE in the world you would get a phrase like "suck an elf" and I just got the answer today. My friend lent me "The 10th Kingdom" and said I HAD to watch it. So...you must've been a fan?? :)

Unknown said...

Cuz Cuz! You have a blog! So, go suck an elf! ha ha. I can't think of anything else we used to say. Oh yeah! Llama Faaaaccceee. Well this was surely nice to discover, guess I will become a frequent visitor. Love YA!