I was 18 and fresh out of high school in Arkansas, and he was 20-something, in college, and a DC native. Very chique. We met and he gave me his number (I didn't exactly know my hotel number), and we made plans for me to call that evening after my mom and I did some sight-seeing.
DC is amazing and full of lots of things to do. Time passed quickly and my mom said, "Isn't it time to call him?"
I'd almost forgotten, but I hurried to a payphone (that's how we did it back then) and dialed his number. I invited him to join us at the capitol and walk around a bit.
"Well, it looks like rain," he said. "I think it's better if I pick you up and we go somewhere."
I said sure and gave him a location and then went back to my mom.
"What did he say?" she asked.
"He said it's fixing to rain and he'll pick me up," I replied.
"It's fixing to rain?" she echoed. "He did not say that."
"Yes, he did," I said, annoyed that she would question me. "He's going to pick me up because it's fixing to rain."
Laughing, she said, "There's no way he said it's fixing to rain."
"Mother," I said, frustrated now, "if you'll go outside, you'll see what he means. It's all cloudy out there."
Shaking her head, she said, "There's no way on earth he said 'fixing to.'"
And then I got what she meant. And I realized that of course he hadn't said 'fixing to.' That had been my own Arkansas translation. Once I got that, I laughed right along with her.
"Fixing to" last about a month, at the longest, in my college slang before my Californian roommate laughed me out of the dorm after I used it. I made a very very conscious effort to remove the term from my dictionary. Which is rather unfortunate. It would be nice to be able to drop a "fixing to" here or there without feeling like everyone is staring at me.
Welcome to hickville.
6 comments:
It's a pity you let that one slip. I like those regional linguistic seasonings! I bet if you'd persisted, you'd find your friends would have started picking it up, too!
Wait - it wasn't me right? It was Julia that did the laughing? Because I would never laugh at your cute phrases.
wait, I was wanting the story about how he picked you up bc it 'might' rain... and then had no cool plans for the evening...or took you to some swanky club that you had to politely decline... or something else entirely. I wanted the STORY!!!
While I read the anecdote it took me a bit to figure out what she was second guessing. I thought maybe she thought he was lying about it raining. I loved the punch line! haha, I love fixing to.
Had to be Julia. Final answer
Defnitely Julia! LOL.
Post a Comment