Communication Difficulties 1994
Communication – the art of transmitting ideas of conversing, according to two of my many dictionaries. Apparently, I have lost my ability to do that with the younger generation.
Perhaps I’ve written before about speech differences now and when I was growing up: Such as tough meant being mean and today it means good looking; hippy meant a person had a large derriere and today hippy refers to a person. Grass meant just that and today it’s a substance to be smoked.
But, last week I encountered something that has absolutely baffled me. A young man called (30-ish and with children) to ask my advice about handling some quilts that had been roughed up during our recent tornado. First, we talked about their condition prior to the storm and the type material we had to deal with. I suggested the cotton quilts that were in good shape be put in the washing machine on a delicate cycle — using Ivory Flakes — or something of that nature He described a special quilt that was already in very bad condition, with the cotton batt coming out, and it was my suggestion that the quilt be put in the bathtub and swished up and down. Then the plug could be pulled, let that water drain out and then repeat the procedure several times. Then I lost him completely when I said, “Do not wring the quilt, as this will further damage the fibers.” Dead silence was on the line and finally he said, “I’m going to have to buy a book on old-timey southern speech so I’ll know what you’re talking about!” I was dumb-founded to say the least! I didn’t see the word “wring” as old-timey or outdated either. In an effort to explain, I asked “If you had a bath cloth in your hand and it was full of water, how would you extract the water?’ “I’d squeeze,” he replied. “Don’t you reckon you would have to twist a little?” “Probably,” was the answer. “Then that’s what I mean by wring!” I hesitate to call and ask how that project turned out, I’m afraid we will have even more problems. It bothers me that I’m losing my natural borne ability to converse. What is to happen later? A generation gap yes; but won’t enough of our English language remain so different generations can communicate through conversation?
And another example, over the week end I had a young whippersnapper from Atlanta in my herb garden, and as I most times have to do, I was telling what each plant is and what it’s used for. As I passed by the Horehound (a beautiful plant with curly, round, light green leaves), I said “this is Horehound and extraction can be made from this member of the mint family and used in candies.” As I looked up at this person, she had the strangest expression and with a half-smile (as though I had said something risqué’), she asked me to spell the word! The very idea! Apparently, the rock-music-generation just expects expletives to be a part of everyday conversation and by all generations.
Could sign language be the answer? I strongly suspicion that if the AARP card-totin’ generation hangs around long we’ll be in big trouble – conversation wise. No matter what – this is country living!