The old stuff store

So yesterday I spent a couple hours in antique stores in downtown Franklin with my son, who is four and a half (the half is very important you know!). It is easy to see he has been doing this since birth because he enjoys it - calls it going to the old stuff store. Anyway, I was looking at a quilt and really wanted to buy it but thought it was really too much to pay...knowing it would end up on the floor...covered in cheerios...or outside...as all my others do. The dear boy and I walked away from the quilt and he said "moma why didn't you buy that cover you loved?" To this I replied "because, baby, it was as high as a cat's back".

I kept walking and he was silent. Then he said "moma, you sure say a lot of funny things." In that instant I realized he was right. We southerners have a whole slew of "funny" ways of expressing ourselves. Clearly, this one was new to him, but there are many others that are already a part of his venacular. These "funny things" we say in the south are passed down from generation to generation like true heirlooms. My dear boy has already inherited much at his tender age.

When I tell him not to be ugly, which is often, he knows that his moma is not referring to his looks but his behavior. He knows that hearing he is being 'too big for his britches' is a warning. By the way, he calls all pants, britches - so cute! He understands when an older person tells him they are going to 'put a brick on his head' they are saying how big he has gotten. He knows that at night we eat supper - never dinner! He even gets what it is to be 'up a creek without a paddle' (after much explanation.) And one time he asked me why some kids have a mommy and others have a moma. I said "its a southern thing" and he said "well I like it - moma". And so do I.