Indiana Girlfriend

Different Words

June 18, 2021 at 4:27 pm Leave a comment

  When I was a child, I thought my Aunt Julie talked funny.  True, she was speaking English, yet she invented certain words.

   I was certain that these words were hers alone because I never heard anyone else in my family use them.  I never heard them at school, at the play ground, not even at church.

   Lollygag for one.  She was worried that we kids were lollygagging.  She never told us what it meant.  All we knew was we never wanted to be a loggygagger.

   We would also dilly-dally.  My sister Phyllis was always guilty of this one.  I can still remember Aunt Julie saying, “Come on Phyllis, don’t dilly-dally.”     My sister could also dawdle on occasions.

   Aunt Julie was always threatening to have a fit.  First she would get in a snit, (which I have yet to understand), then she might have a hissy fit.  Yet she often said she might have a conniption fit.  Could this be an entirely different picture?  We kids waited patiently for her to have a conniption fit, but she never did.

   “C’mon youngens,” she would say.  I liked that one.  At home, I was Nancee Sue, sissy or the baby sister.  To Aunt Julie I was a youngen. 

   When I was ten she mentioned she wrapped my doo’dah present.  I couldn’t wait until Christmas morning.  Obviously, she had changed her mind.  All I could find in the box was a pair of pajamas.

   Aunt Julie had unknown words not found in any dictionary.  One of my favorite words was “tripee”.  A word I am still leery to use today.  I’m not quite sure what it meant.  It had something to do with her in-laws.   I don’t think they were travelers.  

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