Times, They Are A Changing

Shael came home last night telling her Dad and me that she was glad we didn't have her ride the bus that morning because a kid brought a gun onto the bus. WHAT?! The kid's name is Damion. Isn't that the name of the spawn of Satan on The Omen? Shael was talking about it again this morning when I was taking her to school. I asked her if the kid's last name was Smith (name changed to protect the innocent, mainly myself and my little family) and she looked at me and laughed and said "That's the same exact question Daddy asked me!" Well! Any Wyandottian knows what name I'm dancing around, here. You can't blame me for asking. They're usually behind any kind of illegal activity that happens around this area. I like them alright, they have never done anything to me, and I am even distantly retlated to them. Tribal members every one of them. They know they are trouble makers. And there's so many of them! The few that aren't trouble makers are guilty by association, bless their hearts.
But, anyway, back to the gun. I don't know what kind of gun it was. I only know that the bus driver said to the whole gang of bus riders to report anything that even resembled a gun or a knife immediately. I guess he got lots of blank stares because he added "because Damion brought a gun on this bus this morning and he got locked up for it!" Oh, little town of Wyandotte, don't bring guns to this school, you fool.
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I am an Okie. I was born and raised an Okie and my daughter was born and is being raised an Okie. I freely admit I have a thick Okie accent. Although I don't notice it, I was recently made aware in a conversation with the postman in Norridgewock, Maine and my B/F that yes, it's a thick accent. So, naturally, Shael has this same thick Okie accent. I remember when she was four years old and I took her to Maine with me how they loved to hear her say the words "twins" and "brown". Two one syllable words made into two syllable words. She still pronounces them that way, she uses the word "y'all" correctly, and lately I've noticed that she's been pronouncing the word "can't" as "cain't". But there's one word she says that drives me batty. She does not pronounce it the way the rest of us in this house pronounce it. I don't know where she got this pronunciation from, none of my family calls it that. Must be Mike's family, though they are hillbillies among hillbillies and where they'd get that word from is beyond me. The word: Towel. Around here it's pronounced "towl" or maybe more accurately "tal". Shael pronounces it in two syllables. "Tow-el". Rhymes with owl, if it was said "ow-el". Okay, where did that come from? I don't get on to her for it, because that would just be crazy. But, I do mention it. Kind of in a joking way, I don't want to scar the poor child over a stupid word. She's getting better at getting her own before getting into the shower, but it use to be an every night thing and it was so dang irritating! "Mommy! I need a tow-elllll!" Grrrr. You mean a tal?
All that to tell you what Mike said to her Monday night. She was wrestling around with her Daddy, as usual, and she "accidentally" (she later told us she did it to try to hurt herself enough so she wouldn't have to go to school the next day. Now that's planning) tripped over a basket of clean towels and they went scattering across the love seat. Mike made her pick them up the fold them and put them away. She whined about it because she said Mama was picky about how the towels were folded. We told her to do it right then. Then when we told her to put them away she whined about that, too, saying Mama was picky about how they were put away, too. So, put them away right, we told her. And she's right, I'm very picky about how they are folded and which towels go on what shelf, I have a system and it bugs me when they are put away wrong. As it turns out, I should have saved myself a load of aggravation and done it myself because when I went to grab a kitchen towel and found the mess she'd made on the shelves, I re-did it all.
But, anyway, as she was whining about the "tow-els" I started kind of making fun of the way she says it. I told her she says it like a Yankee. I have these friends who are from New York, though they've lived in Oklahoma for 32 years, they still retain the New York accent. They say "tow-el". They're Yankees transplanted to Oklahoma, though, they're entitled. But, Shael? She kept arguing with me about the pronunciation of the word and I kept calling her a Yankee and Mike was laughing and calling her a "Damn Yankee" when she finally asked "What's a Yankee?" And Mike, without missing a beat said "It's like a quickie only you can do it yourself". I thought I'd fall over and melt into the kitchen floor. Thank goodness she didn't understand and I had to quickly supply the correct definition of the word so she wouldn't continue to ask what her Daddy was talking about. That man, he can still make me blush.