F Words

Deb was just pointing out that four year old kids all know the word “fuck” already, even if they also know they are never to say it.

Well, maybe.  I don’t recall knowing it, but there was not a lot of cursing going on in our house or else I was oblivious.  I remember being shocked when friends used words not even so potent when I was several years old, and I only carefully started using the F word myself when I was about eleven.  Rarely and privately at that.

Anyway, this reminded me of an anecdote.  When I was in fifth grade, the newest insult being flung around was “fag.” Kids would say to each other in a mean tone “you fag!”

So one night at the dinner table I blurted out “what’s a fag?”

Shock!  Anger!  “You will NEVER say that word again!” All this told me was that it must be something really horrible and never to ask anything like that or rely on my family to teach me things I could learn elsewhere again.  It was an understandable yet hopelessly irrational response.

If this sounds funny, remember that “suck” was still a mild swear when I was growing up, and words you hear on TV regularly were still somewhat of a big deal, if nothing like the F word or, apparently in my family, the other F word.

1. Oh yes! I remember it well. My Mom has a whole slew of words that weren’t utterable. Among them were: Fart, Sucks and even Crap along with the standard fare. But your story reminds me of my “run in” with the vagaries of slang.

   I’m in Mrs. Ellis’ 9th grade science class, goofing around as I was apt to do. Keep in mind that I got along well with most of my teachers, Mrs. Ellis was no exception. So there we were talking and joking around when I looked at her and said, “You dildo.” You can’t imagine the look that came over her face. I thought the word meant something akin to “goofball” or “silly” but apparently it didn’t. Oh my.

   After being dragged to the Principal’s office, my story retold with great emotion, they finally believed claim that I didn’t know the true meaning of the word.

   Ahhh, good times.

   Posted by tre  on  01/19  at  02:41 PM

2. LOL! Actually, I never learned the word “fuck” until I was nine years old, in fourth grade. Of course, this was way back in the mid 1960s. One day out on the playground at morning recess, I noticed that this strange word, “FUCK,” had been soaped on a window of the junior high building. I remember some of my classmates laughing at me because I didn’t know what it meant.

   So when I went home for lunch that noon (we lived just a few blocks from the school), I innocently asked my parents, “What does ‘fuck’ mean?”

   Suddenly there was dead silence at the kitchen table. My mother finally managed to stammer out, “It means, uh… uh… uhh… sexualintercourse!”

   Like you, I quickly learned where not to ask certain questions.

   Posted by Paul Burgess  on  01/20  at  09:33 AM

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