Our elders were on to something...

Hello World...

I was just thinking about some of the vocabulary we used and were taught by our elders.  Little did we know we were sometimes speaking the Queen's English and using words from other countries.  You don't believe me?  Raise your hand if you ever sat on a Divan this has a turkish/european origin.  Did I get your attention?  Raise your hand if you ever put your clothes in the highboy , this is 17th to 18th century fancy furniture that some of use grew up with and didn't even know what we had.  Isn't it neat how the words were passed down?  How 'bout when you are sitting on the commode?  Here's the twist to this word.  Commode originates from France to describe a piece of furniture but the good ole US of A (ex-colonists) decided to use it to describe the toilet.  But not too many folks use it anymore.  I find myself using the word from time to time but not much.  One word that i couldn't find that I remember my step-grt-grandmother (Elnora Turknett) use it the garrey, also known as the porch.  I'm not quite sure if it's "garrett" or "garrey" but I knew what she meant.  I'm unsure of it's origin.  Oh yes and one more the "ice box" and the "fridgidaire" were terms we used as kids for the "refrigerator".  Ice Box ( i do know) because at one point people used to literally get blocks of ice and put it in to keep food from spoiling due to having no electricity.  And the term "fridgidaire" was actually a name brand of a refrigerator, apparently very popular to the point that people used that term to describe the piece of equipment.  Kind of like how we'll say "kleenex" versus tissue paper no matter what brand it is.  Simply because people will know what you're asking for.

There are lot of languages that I wish were passed down that we'd be the better for at this present-day for knowing.  Like patoi and creole.  A lot of us Texans have roots in Louisiana as well as whatever tribal blood got mixed in there and there are so many cultural habits and terms that got lost because people felt it was something to be ashamed of.  There is a part of me that almost feels lost because I don't know anything about parts of my background.

Well anyway, even though big mama, granny, papa, big daddy sometimes didn't have the GREAT education that some people have today, they were alot smarter in some cases and no matter what you say, they were on to something.  It's too bad we're losing it.  I think we have literally gotten too big for our britches...obviously since our young men, kings of the kingdom now choose to wear them tight and below their butts.

*peace and blessings*

Blatant Disrespect...

Hello World....

I experienced and witnessed some of the most blatant disrespect yesterday morning.  I live in an area that is basically in the middle of a big neighborhood including an elementary school, therefore two school zones exist.  The first one is in front of the school, so for the most part everyone slows down to 25 like the flashing yellow lights signal us to do and then there is also normally a cop sitting there to tag the ones that don't.  Well yesterday I notice this car riding my bumper at the zone in front of the school and I'm thinking "look lady slow down, the kids are right here." Well we get past the school and traffic clears in the other lane and she speeds over and actually looks over at me like I was in the wrong AND the cop sitting there was too busy picking his teeth and he missed her speeding off.  Needless to say this woman drove all the way down the street and sped thru the other school zone.  Now here is where the disrespect comes from, my neighborhood is majority african-american this lady was not.  (read between the lines)  So immediately I'm a tad angry because her actions tell me that she felt like these little minority kids were not worth slowing down for as they use their little legs to scurry across the street to get an education.  This really pissed me off so I took a pic of her car to post on FB BUT i thought about it and decided to edit it to scrub out her license plate.  So the pic up top is the rude lady.  She really pissed me off because I hate that people like that exist.  It's one thing to be running late and wanting to speed through areas that are legal to speed through but to speed through a school zone in front of the school with the kids crossing and then actually give me a mean look for abiding by the rules is just blatant disrespect for the entire neighborhood.

With that being said....
*peace and blessings*