Keeping up with words or "Does this make me dope?"
In the summer of 1973, I was 13. My brother Stephen was almost 11. He spent the summer in Halifax staying with our second cousins on Gottingen Street. I spent all but the last week of the summer in Cornwall with my father. It was not an exciting time for me. I read a lot of library books and debated theology with my hyper-genius friend Mark. (Mark was big into Kierkegard in those days. I was big into the big three: Heinlein, Asimov and Clarke.) Steve had a much more interesting time. When I finally got to Halifax at the end of the summer, he took me aside before I met our hip and with-it cousins. "Dave," he told me with some urgency, "there's some words here that mean different things than you're used to.... Like if something is good and you like it..." "Sure, you say it's 'cool' or 'groovy'," I said. "No." He was appalled. "You say it's 'bad' or 'bold'!" "Wait, if something is good, you say it's bad." I couldn't believe this. "Yeah, and if it's really 'baad', you say it's 'bold'." "Well, I'm not going to say that something that is good is bad," I said. I think this may have been when Stephen gave up on me ever fitting in with normal people.
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2 comments:
Just for the sake of clarification. You are confusing two different summers.
Summer #1. Steve flew to Halifax with his grandparents after their month-long visit. You were going to be attending Music Camp and Steve was not old enough to go. When your father's vacation began you went with the family to NS. Steve spent a lot of his month visiting second cousins Derek & Darlene who lived on Barrington St. (not Gottingen) and also stayed some days with his Aunt Marilyn and Uncle Bert (cousins Cheryl and Krista).
Trip #2 - Steve, Mom & Paul go early to NS while David is again at Camp. Then David and Dad drive to NS. I could elaborate on that trip, listing all the items both males didn't bring with them, but I won't, unless asked.
Big Mama
Thanks, "Big Mama", but you might want to save that list of forgotten items for when you start your own blog.
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