Words of the Past, Present, and Future
The neighborhood kids are all outside playing since school is closed because of the COVID virus. This weekend was pretty crazy. For some reason mostly boys live in this apartment complex. Or at least it's the boys outside playing most of the time.
I don't know if a week off school is getting to the boys or it's something else but they were sure rougher than normal lately. They were scolded by an angry man about throwing rocks at his apartment. I had to yell at one boy to stop repeatedly kicking the generic mail box door where the bigger packages go.
There was a lot of yelling. One of the boys had a plastic horn. Oh..my...God!! That was annoying. It sounded like a tuba being played right outside the balcony window. The dynamics of the courtyard in this apartment complex means that all the noise is funneled up to the apartments. This includes people's conversations as well as the annoying hoo hoo hoo of a plastic horn.
So today two tween girls entered the dynamic. There was a lot tween boy and tween girl interaction. Yes, name calling. Flaunting. Haughtiness. This went on for some time. Eventually the girls went with the faggot name calling which the boys hurled back with emotional spitfire determination.
This brought back memories of when my dad decided that he was going to be suburban cool by calling cigarettes faggots or fags because he had learned that that's what cigarettes were called in England. This was in the late 90s. I am not sure if he read a book or saw a movie made in the 30s or just what.
But yeah, if faggot works for the English then he was going to be suave and use that instead of the commonly used term of cigarette in the good old United States of America. Yes, it was cringe worthy. I literally cringed every time he said he needed a faggot.
I don't know if it was age, that generation, or spending the majority of his life in rural Minnesota without contact with anyone from anywhere else but I did notice in his later years that he had lost the veneer of sophistication I grew up thinking that he had.
Calling cigarettes faggots or fags, being tinkled pink with the invention of Velcro closures on shoes, and not understanding why there was a problem with answering phone calls for a business would be a problem even though he had been nearly deaf for over thirty years. I had long ago given up on ever giving him information over the phone. When he would call I would make noises and just let him talk.
Since he had been nearly deaf for so long he had learned to read lips so it was not always noticeable in person that he couldn't hear anything. That did not work so well over the phone.
So the next time you hear someone talking about firing up a faggot, give it a minute to figure out what they really mean because they might have a different meaning than normal. I do believe that faggot was a term for a burning stick or cigarette...once upon a time, a long time ago. Just like gay meant happy and joyful many years ago.
Words change and sometimes the people who use those words do not change as quickly.
I don't know if a week off school is getting to the boys or it's something else but they were sure rougher than normal lately. They were scolded by an angry man about throwing rocks at his apartment. I had to yell at one boy to stop repeatedly kicking the generic mail box door where the bigger packages go.
There was a lot of yelling. One of the boys had a plastic horn. Oh..my...God!! That was annoying. It sounded like a tuba being played right outside the balcony window. The dynamics of the courtyard in this apartment complex means that all the noise is funneled up to the apartments. This includes people's conversations as well as the annoying hoo hoo hoo of a plastic horn.
So today two tween girls entered the dynamic. There was a lot tween boy and tween girl interaction. Yes, name calling. Flaunting. Haughtiness. This went on for some time. Eventually the girls went with the faggot name calling which the boys hurled back with emotional spitfire determination.
This brought back memories of when my dad decided that he was going to be suburban cool by calling cigarettes faggots or fags because he had learned that that's what cigarettes were called in England. This was in the late 90s. I am not sure if he read a book or saw a movie made in the 30s or just what.
But yeah, if faggot works for the English then he was going to be suave and use that instead of the commonly used term of cigarette in the good old United States of America. Yes, it was cringe worthy. I literally cringed every time he said he needed a faggot.
I don't know if it was age, that generation, or spending the majority of his life in rural Minnesota without contact with anyone from anywhere else but I did notice in his later years that he had lost the veneer of sophistication I grew up thinking that he had.
Calling cigarettes faggots or fags, being tinkled pink with the invention of Velcro closures on shoes, and not understanding why there was a problem with answering phone calls for a business would be a problem even though he had been nearly deaf for over thirty years. I had long ago given up on ever giving him information over the phone. When he would call I would make noises and just let him talk.
Since he had been nearly deaf for so long he had learned to read lips so it was not always noticeable in person that he couldn't hear anything. That did not work so well over the phone.
So the next time you hear someone talking about firing up a faggot, give it a minute to figure out what they really mean because they might have a different meaning than normal. I do believe that faggot was a term for a burning stick or cigarette...once upon a time, a long time ago. Just like gay meant happy and joyful many years ago.
Words change and sometimes the people who use those words do not change as quickly.
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