Well, I swan.....

Right off....  this has NOTHING to do with birds....

Beautiful, right?

Taken in Seville, Spain at the Parque Maria a few months ago..

What happened was...

Bill & I are heading out the door this morning.....  he is using the 4-wheeler to get around (broken ankle, remember?) while we're here at our daughters place.  He needs the "pull-behind" trailer to haul stuff in.  The trailer has a flat tire.  I ask him what it will take to get it fixed.

Basically...  he told me that it would take a lot of "language"....  meaning that it's going to take a lot more grunt work than real "know-how".

Immediately I thought of my Dad.  Daddy didn't have much of a formal education, but he was self taught and had knowledge of almost anything anyone wanted to discuss.  He could certainly hold his own with the college kids who lived with us and the ones who visited him to gather "oral history" information about days gone by.  He subscribed to and read several different newspapers each day and often had both the radio and the TV on at the same time to hear what was going on in the world.

One thing I'm sure he didn't pick up from the news was his colorful vocabulary.  My mother was often embarrassed by his language....  not the big 4 or 5 syllable words he could use...  but those long-drawn-out "phrases" he'd use when his legs were giving him pain (he'd been injured in a coal mining accident when I was a tot).  And, WOW, could he ever rip em off! 

I'll have to admit that I heard it all....  but never used any of that language way back then.  (honest)

My dad was 44 years old when I was born so by the time I started dating he was retirement age.  Just think what a girl in the mid 50's would think bringing a guy around only to hear her dad rip off such words!

I shouldn't have worried.....  I ended up married to that guy who came around back then.  He worked construction and worked around a  "worldly" crew.  But when our kids were little I will say he refrained from the words he used  on the job....  Euphemisms like "cheese and rice" were used instead.  Well, that marriage didn't last...  the kids are grown and have grandkids of their own.  I have no idea how his language progressed, but will admit mine became more "colorful".

So.... today, when Bill joke-inly says that only bad language is gonna get that tire off that trailer, I just had to think of my Dad.  He'd be 115 years old now.....  maybe he's up there in heaven tripping over whatever the heck he tripped over that made him cuss....  ripping off oaths that would make a sailor blush.... (hey, I learned some pretty good stuff)....  

What's this got to do with swans?  Well, heck....  who of you haven't heard of that "genteel southern expression...  I swan?  

My salty language (learned from my Dad, of course) could quickly translate into REAL words!  Which I won't write here ;-)

So....

Here's to my Dad...  may I always be open to learning new vocabulary, new phrases and the correct way to use them!

Well, I swan....  Bill, that trailer tire shouldn't be too hard to fix!

That's All For Today!