 |
| The One True Cure For 'Horse Talk' |
I learned all about swearing at Other Mother's house. She wanted to be called 'Other-Mother' because she hated the idea that she was old enough to be a grandmother. She herself used the term 'Other-Mother' to describe her father's third wife when she was a child, and liked it. Before any of us were born Other Mother demanded that my mother made her children call her by that name.
Other Mother was a short, round, angry little woman who dismissed her given names of Iris and Utahana to go by 'Pat', a nickname that she received for her obstinate and surly nature which reminded her family of her uncle Patrick.
She was a woman possessed of that uniquely southern morality that finds it quite unthinkable to come shabbily dressed to a lynching. One of her favorite teaching moments were lectures about 'rough talk' and 'horse talk' explaining that it was important to keep what came out of our mouths clean, considerate and respectful. One time when my older sister accidentally bumped the table knocking over my block creation and I called her stupid within the hearing of my grandmother. Other Mother stomped over, grabbed me by the hair, pulled me into the kitchen, sat me down and told me what damage a hateful word could do to someones heart. Then she showed me the damage a metal serving spoon could do to someones hand by giving me a few whacks.
In my opinion the spoon whacks were worse but that was probably because I wasn't stupid like my sister.
