I have to write a Newswithviews column, but first… a little fun.
How did my grandma ever think of this ploy? It really worked! What? Go up the stairs–with the Mick-Mock up there waiting for me? Not a chance!
But I find myself wondering if any more of our fears are, like the Mick-Mock, just something that somebody made up to keep us from doing whatever they didn’t want us to do. Think… oh… Climate Change.
Or think … oh … Covid-19.
Actually, the Mick-Mock story is kind of funny. It reminds me of a similar trick my mother and my favorite uncle pulled on me and my cousin. They let us overhear them talking in hushed tones about a dirty word so filthy that they must make sure the children never heard it. So of course my cousin and I used it all the time instead of any of the words we might have overheard elsewhere. The word? (Drumroll.) Oshkosh.
Of course we were mortified — and also kind of appreciative of our parents’ sense of humor — when we found out that Oshkosh was the name of a city. But to this day, I can never see or hear a reference to Oshkosh (or Osh Kosh for the purists) without chuckling inside. In fact, I’m sitting here chuckling right now. And still, every now and then when I hit a frustrating snarl in something I’m doing, I find myself thinking “Oh, oshkosh!”
Oshkosh… B’gosh?
That is kinda funny, and it reminds me of my late mother in law, who was a restaurant chef. She heard a lot of nasty language, but when she was frustrated, she would say “oh, bolshevik” Of course, all the younger generation around her would snicker.