SHE TALKS REAL GOOD

When I was dating TLW (The Little Woman), she and I were both working in the city. She for Mobile Oil, and I was working for a very prestigious firm called Lawrence G. Chait and Co., an advertising direct mail firm. I would call her and she would answer with her: “Miss Manning” and it would make me crazy because she has a very sexy voice on the phone, too.

This morning we were cleaning up the kitchen together after breakfast and she said something with a pronunciation that was very cultured and correct, which led me to think about how dissimilar some of our background is from the sheer weight of where we grew up!

Being born in Brooklyn, growing up in an Italian environment, all my friends were Italian, I live very near my Grandmother who was born in Italy, I had a definite Italo-Brooklyn flavor to my words.

It may not have been as bad as Hollywood portrays “Brooklynese” to be but it was there, including: “Dems and dose.” When I moved to the Island, I notice how the other kids spoke and changed to fit in. I like to think that now most of it is gone, but I hope not all of it. It defines who I am, and I’m proud of it.

When my Dad was alive, he had a certain code of behavior I had to follow, which included things like speech, haircuts and work habits. You could NEVER do anything that made you sound like a “Fairy” in Dad’s mind. I once got a haircut after I was married for a good ten or fifteen years with three kids and the back was rounded edges on the neck, instead of the clean square edges Dad and I used to get. “Where did you get that hair cut?” Dad inquires. I ask why, and he says: “Because it makes you look like a fairy.”

Once TLW purchased a tie and shirt for me from a catalog, long before the internet, and the tie was pink! I wore the tie to some family function, sure enough Dad asks: “Where did you get the tie?” I answer: “Why?” See response in the last paragraph, last sentence.

So you can see my reluctance to change my speech habits too much. When TLW speaks, because although I admire her speech, If I started to emulate her speech, it would make me feel uncomfortable, and I would hear Dad’s voice saying: See response in the next to last paragraph, last sentence.