Innocence

When do words become "suggestive" or "naughty"? It seems only adults decide what words are bad and what words are not bad. Terrible but true, children can suffer because of adults' conception of words that they claim are right and wrong.

Here is a story that will make you chuckle but you must also agree that innocence is sometimes a better state than the state of some adults whose minds go to the suggestive or naughty too quickly.

My last child, Carissa came as the answer to our dreams of having a little girl. She made our family complete. Now she is a mother with two girls of her own. I often wonder how she would handle this memory that I have of her. I'm sure she would remember it completely differently, but this is my memory dammit and I'll stick to it!

My Mother loved my daughter as she had loved me and my sisters and so when we went to visit her in Vancouver, she often gave my daughter special little gifts. Recycling was not yet a word on anyone's tongue but like most people in the 70's, was very good at reusing things. On one visit, she gave my daughter a tee shirt that someone had given her. She was not a tee shirt person and my daughter delighted in having a shirt that looked like the tee shirts her brother's wore. My daughter did not put on the tee shirt right away. She tucked into her little suitcase to bring back home. She said that she wanted to save it and wear it to school.

The morning that she wore the new tee shirt (which was much too big for her, but still very precious) I must have been busy getting the boys ready. I did not really look at what she was wearing that day. That is my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

Off she went to school wearing her new tee shirt under her jacket.

Her teacher phoned me shortly after 9 AM and said, "I am sending your daughter home!"

"Oh dear," I said, " is she sick?"

"No," came a rather frosty reply, "she is coming home to change her tee shirt. Please ensure that she does and send her back to class as soon as possible."

The teacher hung up and I sat there wondering what the problem was. Did she spill something on her tee shirt? I tried hard to remember what she had worn that morning, thinking perhaps she had worn something that needed to go in the rag-bag or the washing machine.

I didn't have long to wait. We were only a block from the school and she ran all the way home. When she burst in the door she was crying. Tears ran down her face. "What happened" I asked gently.

She said, "I don't know! All I know is that the teacher said that my new tee shirt that Nana gave me is very naughty and I had to come home and change it."

With that, she opened her jacket and showed me what all the trouble was about. It was a lovely white tee shirt that came almost down to her knees, and across the front of it, in bright red letters were the words, OLD FISHERMEN NEVER DIE, THEY JUST CAN'T RAISE THEIR RODS! This wording may have not been exact, but you get the picture.

I read it and started to laugh. She looked at me and said, "It is not funny! Nana gave this shirt! Why would Nana give me a shirt that was naughty?"

My mother was from a different era, sho had no idea what that saying could mean! She was as innocent as her granddaughter. When my Mom had bought this tee shirt at a rummage sale she only thought about how much her granddaughter would like it.

I cannot remember how much of an explanation I gave my daughter other than to say that sometimes words can have two different meanings. I also remember having to explain to my mother what the words implied and she got very embarrassed and told my daughter how sorry she was that the whole thing had happened.

Innocence is wonderful ... where does it go.