Odds and Ends

I've had to interview some children this week for two articles I'm writing. One child, a nine-year-old girl in Georgia, was flawlessly polite on the phone. She would say "yes, ma'am" and "no, ma'am." When I finished questioning her, I asked her if her teacher wanted to talk to me. She answered, "I don't reckon." That's not something one hears up in the North.

Today I talked to another kid, this one an eleven-year-old in Nevada. He also used "ma'am" at the end of his answers. It made me feel old; at the same time, I appreciated the fact that they were so well-mannered. I know I wasn't that articulate when I was their age.

And people thought I was crazy with my big raver pants. Hammacher Schlemmer is selling upside-down Christmas trees this holiday season, which just seems wrong (even though it is an old tradition in some parts of the world). NPR did a story on it today.

Filed in: Culture Oddities