swaer

I like this typo. Sounds sorta' old English, or maybe Latin.

With going to Catholic school and the nature of my parents it was high school before I saw lots of words that I had not seen before and had no clue what they meant. My kids not so sheltered.

When I was in 9th grade, I went to a public school for the first time. Some kid called me a faggot and I didn't know what it meant. Later I called a friend that.

I learned an important lesson - it's a Bad Idea to call people words when you don't know what they mean.

"No, mommy, it's holy shit!"

You can't fool that kid.

I remember the first time I accidentally said "fuck" to my mother, during a call home from college. I got a long "is this what you're learning in college" speech. My mother will now occasionally use the word "bitch" in tones of great daring.

If college hadn't already taught me to swear, I would have learned as a reporter. Generally speaking, a city editor wouldn't even look up until you'd used at least 10 swear words.

My mom says "damn" and, rarely, "shit." Never when I was a kid. The only time I have ever said "fuck" in front of my mom was around age 17 when I dropped something as I was trying to get out the door. The look on her face was so utterly terrifying that I fell over myself apologizing before I escaped.

Too bad my good upbringing didn't fucking take.

I remember being shocked the first time I heard Mom say fuck but now she says it all the time.

"Alex" was a killer, GC. Her dad being a sportswriter and still being so...tender and everything broke me in bits. Alex was only a bit older than I and I thought we would have liked each other, too. If she lived, I mean.

Funny swearing story:

When I was 3, I walked into the kitchen and asked my mom what we were having for dinner. She said "blah, blah, blah and beets" I said " I don't want any yucky fucking beets" She said, calmly "What did you say?" I repeated "I don't want any yucky fucking beets" She said "oh, you can't say that word, it's a bad word" I said "yucky?" She tried not to smile and said "no, the other one" Story still told with great amusement (often by me)

I asked Mom about fuck. She says:

good question................I remember thinking it was a horrid word...........I remember seeing "so and so eats it raw" one time when I was a child and going home and asking about it and not getting a satisfactory answer............what could be rougher than that, eh? I think it was something I picked up as "usable" in semi-polite company much later in life, prolly around your college age.

If I heard the word "fuck" before college, it registered as white noise to me, because I had no frame of reference. Yes, I was very insulated from the world.

Also, my mother lost it when anyone said "my god", so you can guess the tolerance level of swearing.