Arden and Parden

Holly heard it in India, in 2014, and recognized it as a parallel to

Pete and RE-Pete were out in a boat. Pete fell out. Who was left? ***

In the early 1970s, I had a boyfriend who had grown up in India. His family was in New Jersey, and he had been in the Canada or the U.S. for eight or nine years. We went to visit my grandparents near Fort Worth. We were all getting along great, and my Papaw let him drive the tractor. He said, "But pull that handle back and let the disks down." So Dev's plowing that field, and my Papaw thinks he really tricked him, but Dev's having a blast. Papaw kept calling him "Zeb," which Dev and I both thought was cute, and fine, but Granny said, "His name is DEV, you durned old fool."

Still, it was fun.

One afternoon I came into that very familiar kitchen, kind of dark with the light off, which matched many of my childhood memories, and heard this:

"Pardon?" (that was Dev, standing in the middle of the room)

"Come again?" (Granny, standing politely near him)

"Pardon?"

"Come again?"

They were in an endless loop and I rescued them.

He didn't know that "Come again?" meant "Sorry, could you repeat that?" and she didn't recognize what he was saying when he said "pardon," because of his accent.

Later he asked me on the side, "Why does your grandmother say 'Atlantic Ocean'?"

She was saying "Land o'Goshen." It was a Biblical term used as an expletive. Others might've said "gosh darn it," but that was too close to "Lord's name in vain" for her. I had never noticed it sounding like "Atlantic Ocean," but he was right. At least like "'Lantic Ocean."

Certain books I re-read every year, especially children's classics. I get a deep sense of peace and calm from the familiar lines. And last night, we re-watched The Big Lebowski. Better than ever -- timeless, in fact!

Laurie, I would never have guessed you for that movie. 🙂

The Dude's bowling team? I've known every one of 'em.

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