Family language.....is there anything like it?? I am sure my family is not unique in the use of terms or phrases that only a family member would know. But in case you run into my family here is a brief list of terms they will understand:
1. Secret Doozins (pronounced dues ins)- this means "secret doings"- around the holidays we would be all doing our secret shopping etc.....if someone asked what you were doing you would say secret doings which my dad turned into secret doozins- it meant don't ask and you will find out soon .....like on Christmas
2. Datsita (pronounced dat sit ah)this means coffee....not sure where the one came from but when we lived at home Dad would ask for more datsita we knew it meant coffee
3. Royroys (pronounced roy roys)- this is pasta cooked in olive oil and garlic- I believe it is correctly called aglio e olio
4. Gadabouch (pronounced God a boo ch)- the meant the trash- you would hear someone say put this in the gadabouch and know what it meant
5. Scargots (pronounced scar gots)- this means escargot- we just got lazy and it was never escargot again in my house- one time my grandmother was out to dinner and said she had to stop and think how to pronounce it correctly because she was so used to saying it the way we did at home.
6. a pheasant motel- (pronounced just the way it is)- if someone in the family says they stayed at a pheasant or it wasn't a pheasant we know just what they mean-- a pheasant motel is basically a run down motel or a dive with drawers that do not match, a door that does not lock and paper cups wrapped in plastic in the bathroom- the term was derived by my family on our cross country camping trip back in the 1971......we very seldom stayed in motels.....most nights we were in our tent.....one night dad splurged for a motel.....I don't remember if we couldn't find a campground or if we had driven too late to start setting up camp......anyway this place had nothing on the Bates Motel.....it has all the things I mentioned above no locks, plastic cups, etc.....we even put things in front of the door so it could not be opened from the outside......when we were packing the car to leave the "motel" the next morning we noticed the front door to the room next door was open....next thing we saw a pheasant came walking out of the room....hence the term pheasant hotel
7. Some mule- (pronounced just the way it is)- My Uncle Johnny always brought the most outrageous desserts to a family gatherings- around Christmas he would bring a cake shaped like the yule log- when someone was asked what they wanted for dessert they replied some yule- meaning the yule cake....my younger brother thought they said some mule....and so another phrase in the family dictionary was born.
8. Godmother's prerogative- this means if Mom say no you can go to your Godmother who can overrule Mom. It started with something as simple as being allowed to eat a piece of candy before dinner or not having to eat broccoli. It did eventually grow into other things a Godmother was allowed to do (kind of) without Mom's permission. I think I might have crossed the line when I took my niece to get her ears pierced when she was 2 or 3 without checking with my sister about it first. My sister was initially shocked by then said it was OK. I should have known that she would one up me when my daughter came home from an afternoon out with my sister and now had 2 ear piercings in each ear. We sisters agreed after that to take it down a notch before we had kids with tattoos before the age of 10.
9.Jennifer Eve- I decided not only should a birthday be celebrated but also the Eve of the birthday hence Jennifer Eve. On Jennifer Eve......she could have whatever she wanted for dinner and we had to go along with it. One year it was French Toast and French Fries....another year Hamburger Helper.....another time we had a backwards dinner (cake first and then the real meal). I have shared the idea of Jennifer Eve with some friends and they now do this with their children.
OK this next one is not for those who can be offended easily.....you might want to skip it......
10. AMF- the kids thought it meant adios my friend....not even close.....one derivative of it is Happy Birthday My Friend....trust me there are many more but I am trying to keep this to where I am not offending any one too much...
I love family language.....it is one of the things that bonds us and can make us laugh hard when someone says I just stayed at a real pheasant......we all know what they mean and the laughter that follows is not mean spirited.....it is just an understanding that only a family can share.
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