TIP TUESDAY: WHAT'S A PHYSIC?

Gentle Readers . . . and Maxwell,

When I first started working at the nursing home, I loved going into Mr. A's room. He was a favorite of mine among the patients. Anytime I took something to him, he tapped his cheek and said, Give me a kiss right here, baby doll.

I was glad to oblige.

But one day he said, I need a physic.

I left the room puzzled. Physic? I asked the nearest nurse. What's a physic?

She said, It's an old-fashioned way of saying laxative.

I tell you this anecdote because it's important for your characters to use dialog appropriate for their time period. Word choice can also indicate a character's age.

F. Scott Fitzgerald referred to his alcoholism as "dipsomania." Writer Rose Wilder Lane (daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder, who wrote the Little House book series) once asked her father about sayings used when he was young, which would have been in the 1880s. One of his responses was that if they thought someone was a good fellow, they would say that man was "all wool and a yard wide."

My parents called margarine "oleo." My children wore cloth diapers and my mother called the plastic pants they wore over the diaper "rubber pants." When disposable diapers were new, I often heard them called "paper diapers."

This Web site has a dictionary of words commonly used in the 1920s and '30s: http://www.1929anupperclassaffair.com/Flapperspeak.pdf

Do you remember some words and phrases that you used to hear regularly that have fallen out of fashion but would be indicative of a time period?


Infinities of love,

Janie Junebug

THE HEART OF A DOG

Gentle Readers . . . and Maxwell,

Our little family has suffered a loss. Stella died peacefully on Friday afternoon.

Stella was not my dog. She was Favorite Young Man's faithful friend.

But I knew Stella for many years. She first visited me about ten years ago when I lived in Illinois. She and FYM came to see us for a holiday.

When I moved to Florida, FYM and Stella lived with me for almost a year. She chewed on some of my furniture, for which I promptly forgave her.

She often stayed with me when my son had to go out of town.

I teased her about her smooshed-in face and told her she looked like she'd been chasing parked cars. I loved to kiss her right in the middle of the top of her head because that's where her fur was the softest. I let her sleep in my bed even though she was a bed hog. She had a thing about peeing on my rugs. I didn't like that, but how could I not clean it up and get over it?

Several months ago Stella moved in with me because she needed more care for health issues than my son could provide. Stella and I visited the vet together many times. She had a problem with a disk in her back. It caused her to drag her back legs. She often slipped and fell. The medicine she took for her legs damaged her liver, so she took medicine for her liver.

I knew the end was approaching on Thursday when her back legs stopped functioning almost completely. Then Friday morning, she began to vomit.

Friday afternoon, she sat in the chair next to me that she could no longer hop into on her own. I had boosted her up. When I realized she had stopped breathing, I kissed my favorite Stella spot on the top of her head one last time.

We are sad. We are so sad. Franklin and Penelope search for Stella.

I know it's saddest of all for Favorite Young Man. Stella was his beloved companion. He was her daddy.

She always gazed at him with her sweet brown eyes that showed exactly what was in her heart. She was absolutely and completely devoted to him.

Stella, you are loved forever.


Infinities of love,

Janie Junebug

DO I FOLLOW YOUR BLOG?

Gentle Readers . . . and Maxwell,

If you follow my blog and I don't follow yours, then it's probably because--for whatever reason--I haven't been able to find your blog.

Please leave the address of your blog in a comment, or email the address to me at dumpedfirstwife@gmail.com.

I like to stay in touch with as many of my followers as I can.


Infinities of love,

Janie Junebug

If you need an editor, I'm here for you!

Thanks, fishducky!