Tag: embarrassment

A New, Old Language

We shared smiles and stilted conversation in a darkened smoke-filled room. Blues 

licks melted around a makeshift stage like butter on hotcakes. The smell of burgers 

cooking on an old Coleman grill raised a growl from my stomach while my mind 

wandered in rhythm to the music. When my friend spoke again I strained to listen 

over a low down lyric, “somebody done his woman wrong and someone made him pay.”

I asked my companion to repeat himself; as he talked I noted something new:

He spoke without contractions. Instead of “I’m glad you’re here,” it was “I am” and

 
“you are.” There was no “we’ve,” but “we have.” And I thought, who is this man? 

What has shaped him to speak in this oddly stilted, yet unaffected way? Without 

intending to, I found myself adopting his speech pattern. Would he notice and be 

offended? Oh hell, would he think I was flirting? Adroitly I threw “isn’t” and

“aren’t,” “didn’t,” and “won’t” into the mix narrowly avoiding an awkward 

situation. I can’t make this stuff up, y’all.

  

And Just What Do YOU Do?

 
I saw this meme on Facebook today and had to giggle. For one thing, it’s the kind of offhand remark I’m inclined to make and then get embarrassed by. Often my mouth and my brain operate from completely different game plans.

But this meme also reminded me of a time during Parent/Teacher conferences back when I was teaching seventh grade. We taught in teams of four teachers: math, social studies, science, and English. And when conference time rolled around we met with parents as a team. 

I greatly enjoyed this team concept approach because we learned much more about our students and their parents than we might have otherwise. Sometimes we might have learned a bit too much.

We were chatting with one parent and one of my co-teachers kept saying, “I feel like I should know you. You look so familiar.”

Finally the parent said, “You must recognize me from work.”

“I’m sure that’s it,” replied the teacher. “Where do you work?”

“At the XXX Toy Box on Elm,” said the parent.

My good Christian co-worker went bright red and completely silent. We never let her live that down.

Peace, people!