Let's go

My sister Tracy lives in the suburbs of Kansas City, Kansas, where she’s raising her son and daughter. When they come to visit, it’s so much fun. The kids love to play along the creek, in the barn, and in the haymow, just like we did when we were kids.

Last summer, when they were here, Tracy said to her daughter Caroline, “Let’s go to town.”

“What’s that?” Caroline asked.

Tracy realized that Caroline didn’t know what she meant because where they live, they don’t ever go to town because . . . they’re already in town. She’d never said ‘to town’ before – it was always, ‘Home Depot,’ or ‘the store.’ Caroline thought she was talking about somewhere much more specific.

Tracy is a high school English teacher there. She said the other day the students were reading The Odyssey out loud and the reader didn’t know how to pronounce the word ‘heifer.’ Tracy asked if anyone knew how to pronounce it, and one student volunteered and said it correctly.

“Do you know what it means?” Tracy asked.

“It’s . . . a goat, right?” the student answered.

“Oh, you city folk,” Tracy joked.

I laughed really hard when she told me this story, because it answers my question – who besides me still says the word ‘folk’? My sister. Must have been something we learned on the way to town.