A Day at the Park
I took my boys to a playground for a couple hours today. It was a mild day, in the mid 80s temperature, with relatively low humidity. Last week it was hot, in the mid 90s with the usual high humidity.
A woman near me was talking on her cell phone, and commented to whoever she was talking to, “We’re going to the pool in a few minutes. It’s just too hot today.” She said this “too hot” thing several times during her conversation, as she paced around the sand box where her child was playing.
I leaned over and commented to the mother sitting on a bench near me, “She’s obviously not from here, if she thinks today is too hot.” That mother and another laughed. “Today is nice,” one said.
Half the humor of my comment was overlooking the cell phone talker’s Yankee accent. I pegged the mother as a New Yorker. She was also thanking the person on the other end of her cell call for telling her about this playground—it really is a great place.
Before that, I saw and heard two women talking in some east European language. Later, I saw and heard a husband and wife talking in probably Hindi. At one point in there, I saw and heard an Asian mother speaking to her child in English with a heavy accent.
I was the only one I heard say, “Y’all” or “fixin’.”
“Boys, y’all come on. We’re fixin’ to leave.”
Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com