“See you later, kid,’’ I said hanging up the phone as my son looked puzzled.
“Kid?’’ he said. “She sounded old.’’
“She’s 79,’’ I told him.
“Then why do you call her kid?’’
The truth is, I didn’t realize I had. It’s just an expression left over in my head from the time I learned to talk. People used to call each other “Kid’’ the same way my son and some of his friends today call each other “Dude.’’
Actually, they don’t call each other “Dude’’ in the short-and-sweet way. They stretch it out in a long drawl, calling each other “D-o-o-o-o-o-d.’’
At the other edge of the age extreme, the members of the generation before mine used to call each other “Buddy’’ and “Bub,’’ as in, “Yesiree, Bub.’’ And in less familiar situations, they even called each other “Ma’am’’ and “Sir.’’ Doesn’t that sound strange today?
“Honey’’ has also been common among gushy people, especially for men speaking to women or women speaking to men and frequently for an older person speaking to a younger person.
Southern women once seemed especially inclined to lay a “Honey’’ on you. “You guys’’ is common today in this part of the country. But of course, it’s plural. You can’t be talking to one person and say, “Nice to see you guys.’’
And it has its gender limitations. I have encountered females from other parts of the country who found it strange when I referred to them as “You guys.’’
“Guy?’’ a southern woman said to me one day after I used the term. “Do I look like a guy?’’
She didn’t. And I reassured her of that fact.
“You guys’’ is in the same ballpark with the southern “you all’’ or “y’all.’’ Southerners can be talking to you and you alone and still refer to “you all.’’ Even when I’ve put on weight I find it strange for someone to address all of me. And you guys all know what I mean by that.
But I can see how it seems strange to the young that one geezer calls another “Kid.’’ However, their time will come when their language leaves them out of step and sounding odd.
And language is more than words. What about the high-five, or the low-five the palm slapping that has replaced handshakes among a lot of younger people? Will senior citizens shuffle around the home years from now slapping their palms together?
The answer is, yes, they probably will. No matter how silly the youthful custom, people tend to carry it with them into old age.
I see people with gray hair today in the protest clothes of the 1960s, the hippie generation. That’s startling to someone who lived through that period because that long hair and those costumes divided families. Parents took that look as a rejection of them and of their values and of their war.
And they were right. That’s what those clothes were. Fortunately, most of those family fractures have long since healed. But it is startling to someone who witnessed that period to see what now looks like the square parents of that era in the garb of their children.
But then that is no more startling than to see the children of hippies today in suits and party dresses.
So don’t laugh at my weird habits. Sooner or later, the calendar will get even with you for that.
This opinion piece was published in the Feb. 18, 1990, edition of the Lewiston Tribune.
