Things I Thought I 'd Never Say

My cousin Karin recently wrote a blog entry stating the things she thought she would never say and it made me think about some of the things I thought I would never say so I'm playing copycat and creating my own blog entry with the same title. Thanks for the idea Karin.

When I was younger there were things I heard my mother and grandmother say that I swore I never would say to my kids or just say in general but life has a pretty good sense of humor because one day something comes sliding out of your mouth and you think, Oh my God, I became my mother. Before you know it you find yourself saying things like, "I will kill you if you jump on the bed again and break your neck" or "I have no interest in spending my day at the emergency room so do not try and kill yourself climbing like that". Then I added a few of my own, "If you talk back to me again, I will sew up your lips" or "If you do not stop chewing that gum like that I am going to rip off your lips". Just the other day I used my grandmother's famous saying, "Turn the conditioner on, its suffocating in here".

So is it genetics or environment? I do not know. It is hard to say. But what I do know is we become our mothers in the little things we may do or say and if you have children this is a guarantee. I think it is funny how my sister, my mother and I start all our sentences while conversing with the word "Actually". Then, one day I heard my grandson Shaun begin his sentence with the word "Actually". "Oh my God, I thought. We are passing this genetic/environmental habit onto the male branch of our family and he is only five".

Other famous phrases I heard family members say.

"She/he is a windbag" (referring to someone who talks too much)
"Stop your windbagging" (someone who is complaining)
"What ya ma call it" (whatever or you know what I mean)
"Anyway" (another sentence starter)
"A bite to eat" or "just a little sandwich" (when ordering out)
"A cross to bear" (ongoing problem with someone)

If you grew up in Philadelphia you probably have your very own vocabulary and pronunciation. Philadelphians never seem to say their words correctly. Water tends to sound more like woodter. Picture sounds like pitcher. Believe me, when I say we pronounce things differently as it is evident when I visit another state and the waiter states "you are from Philadelphia, aren't you"? Of course you can also asked my very good friends Linda and Melissa. They have way too much fun when I pronounce a word weird. You would never guess that I did actually have four English classes in college and scored all A's. As they say, you can take a girl out of Philadelphia but you cannot take the Philadelphia out of the girl.