The Bad Word That Wasn’t

As Published at: Ashland Daily Tidings

Grandkiddos visited this morning. Music CD’s from the 50′s and 60′s provided incentive for hatching a baby dinosaur, building a resting pyramid for baby dino, dress-ups, an art project, and snacks while weaving dancing into the mix. Suddenly, my six year old grandson insisted there was a bad word on the song that was playing. I was astonished while his younger sister drew near to find out what the bad word was. One of the points in playing oldies tunes, besides loving to dance to them, was that they were safe for children’s ears.

The song in question was, “Hang on, Sloopy.” Being a reading, spelling grandson, he said they were singing “Hang on, Stupid.”

“No, hon, listen closely. They are singing, ‘Hang on, Sloopy.”

“No, Booey, there is no ‘L,’ just a ‘T.’ And Sloopy isn’t a word.”

Oh dear, how to convince him I was not playing a song with someone calling someone else ‘stupid.’

“Let’s get close to the CD player and really listen to the words. Three faces, ages 3, 6 and 66, hovered over the CD player.

Preconditioned, I heard “Sloopy.” But I had to admit it sounded like “Hang on, Stupid. Stupid, hang on…” and definitely a contingency for winning the debate. Deflated, after admitting it did sound like ‘stupid’ but really WAS ‘Sloopy,’ I changed the CD and the subject. “Watermelon, anyone?”

After they went home, I listened to Sloopy again. Now all I can hear is ‘Hang on, Stupid!” It leaves me laughing and enjoying the song in a whole new light. A perk in allowing aging to be awesome is to see old news in a fresh, other age perspective!
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