Peacocks

(1993 July, Rueping memoir)
On our side of the road there were chicken coops with wire runways, including peacocks - which is why I can sound off like the male.

Clarification

(1993 May)

Meals are often a treat here. Remember [at our table] Ron, Bill, me, and The Duchess, all fairly deaf. I said to Ron, "What is the waitress's name?" - "Ron," he says. "I mean, what is her name? How is it spelled?" He says, to clarify all - "Ron" but "R-O-N" and "Ronald." I gave up. It was Marilyn.

Berlin WI

(1991 June 19)

Geraldine's sons run a small carnival summers, and she spoke of selling tickets near Ripon and Ber-LIN. Outsiders always say BER-lin this way.

Syntax

(1991 May 5)

Now we can have a little argument about syntax. Goody! I am sure all your authors are wrong and I am right.... The Oxford English Dictionary is the one we should pay the most attention to - and if it says so, then I shall say no more, except that no one finds fault with my grammar, I THINK. I think. Especially written.

Nerves

(1990 December 1)

I am a good reader and often think I should volunteer to read the lessons and psalms at church but know how nervous I'd be all week; so do not volunteer. Think: let those who are not nervous do it. Guess I am the oldest member: so can be choosey.

Presbyterians

(1987 May)

The Rev. Ewig Holtz had the [funeral] service. When he was Presbyterian minister here he was very popular among many. Raved about his preaching. So I ws anxious to see him and his style tho he is now 88. This was it: Quotations - well known from Bible and poets. A good supply. Held together by a sentence or two. Daddy always said how bare the Protestant services were, and I have to go to one to recall how right he was. Divinity is lacking tho not devotion. I will say this: lovely soft leather seats on the pews.

Elf call

(1970 November 21)

My phone call to Lawrence last night on his [fifth] birthday surely must be one of the oddest on record. He at once got the point of who I was and what I wanted and talked on and on about his presents, only alas in that soft little voice which doesn't carry very well. Once in a while I got a few words tho and was really not sorry later I called, if only for the feeling of unreality I got, like communing with a fairy elf.

Catholic rhetoric

(1964 late June)

Last Sunday Father Hamilton said the past two Sundays he was giving us us free and this next one he was starting in as our priest and would then divulge his program, which was not to liquidate the Catholic Church etc. Old time speaker. Very entertaining just for phraseology and gestures alone.

Russian

(1962 March)

I love the Russian study and am good at it except for the precision of memory work and the conversation I am not good at. But much of it is very fascinating to me. For instance BOLSHOY LE GOROD MINSK? = "Is Minsk a large city?" BOLSHOY is "large" - large ballet. OKE CHAENYA = "eyes black" must be "dark eyes." I think I have eyes plural, black singular, but haven't learned plurals yet.

Nicht wahr?

(1990 May, after Mother's Day)

[Sherry,] I think the sentence I wrote baffled you because I was making fun of the German language. Using that, you can write, or say, a very long statement and then put nicht (not) at the end and negate the whole thing. Always gives me a jolt. I was thinking Skip would be reading the letter out loud and explaining that to you, if I thought at all.

Speechless

(1952 September 23)

[After returning from Episcopal convention in Boston] went to pot luck supper at church that night. Very few there. MA gave report on fair stand and we cleared about $250.00. Then Lorin talked a little about Convention. I had my speech all ready but wasn't called on and all the kids who had to stop running around would have rejoiced.

Warmup

(1994 April)

Yesterday I was lying on my single bed when I felt myself being shaken by Dorthea. "Get up! Wake up, and go across the hall and tell a man what a fine place Schmitt is." The room across from mine is used for many meetings, such as beauty shop, little talks, etc. I went in and was introduced to RF, a tall well-filled-out man with a space between his two large upper teeth. It turned out he was from WRCO, the local radio place, and was here for a story. He was casual and easy to know, and we soon got over being strangers. The first thing he said was "You were a school teacher - weren't you?" I silently indicated I didn't want to go on the air about that, and he laughed and said he could tell from my speech, the grammar and syntax so good, etc. We talked quite a bit - I was careful of my interview when suddenly he said, "Well now I think we can start to tape."

A cute desire

(1993 April)

Had quite a conversation with Diana who comes around about 10 or 11 to give the last pills. A big girl and very very nice. Was sure French acute accent was è because that's the way she put it on her little girl's name, which is Desirè or something like it. I told her should be acute é but she denied it yet pronounced it so.

Artificial aunts

(1994 April)

By the way, do you say ANT when you refer to a relative? We always did - "Aunt (ANT) Lois" etc. AWNT is correct. I tried it but it seemed artificial.