The DU,........circa 1957

[Parisle]

--- The second grade wasn't easy for me. I was a rural kid transplanted into a city school,.. so I focused on making straight-A's and kept my mouth shut otherwise. But I was able to observe a lot.

--- In the second grade, I sat adjacent to two little girls,... Vickie and Donna,...sweet as they could be, I'm sure,.... but they also acted as a unique tandem barometer for all untoward classroom events. Sitting right beside them, I was able to take it all in. Here's what they did.

--- If one of the other students got fingered by our teacher for any form of misbehavior, Donna and Vickie would clap their hands over their mouths and exclaim, "A-Lordy." It happened at least once every day. Some poor kid doesn't have his homework,... "A-Lordy." Some kid gets nailed for talking in class,... "A-Lordy." Some kid farts,... "A-Lordy." Get the picture?

--- One day we were milling around outside during a fire-drill, and something - I don't know what - occurred to piss off this redneck kid named Daryll (No, I'm not making this up,.... he was a redneck kid and his name was Daryll.) Anyway, Daryll said, "Damn." As second-graders in 1957, we were scarcely accustomed to hearing the word, "damn." It was a shock of biblical proportions. Donna and Vickie both clapped their hands over their mouths and said, "A-Lordy."

---Daryll, a tough kid by any guage, eyed the two girls with contempt and started to shoulder his way past them when one of them - I can't remember which - blurted out, "Say it again."

--- The DU is ruled by human nature, have no fear.

[Virginia Dare]

1. You have skewered the southern conservative Baptist..

hypocrisy with one cute little anecdote Parisle! Remember the charactor Mandy in Animal House, she was once one of those little girls.

I was reading a thread earlier about people out marching against a Hooters Restaurant. I was thinking, they probably go home and download porn.

Usually those that are most vocal in their protestations have the most to hide.

[Warpy]

2. I remember those folks at around the same time

My pop was one of the world's truly great cussers, and I was an apt student. I did know, however, that it didn't sound good when a kid did it, so I pretty much kept a lid on the good stuff.

One of the SB mothers in that area didn't want her children associating with me because I said "darn it" when something went wrong. It was "too close to a really bad word."

Now THAT is the type of prissiness you run into in the South when you meet a sanctimonious true believer.

Meanwhile, most of her kids who got their mouths washed out with soap for saying "aw, rats!" ended up doing time before I fled the south and lost track of them.

[Parisle]

3. This wasn't about ths South,....

--- It was about the DU. Had it been up to the DU at Lexinton and Concord, we would still be drinking tea at breakfast.