1/18/2007

If You Hold Up Your Two Fingers it Forms a "V"

Disclaimer: Pretty much all I know about Richard Nixon is the word Watergate, "I am not a crook," and he RESIGNED (which means he was not impeached). Oh, and he was the President of course.

The kids and I were eating dinner last night and The Oldest was putting up his two fingers (the index and the middle) at the end of every sentence. Finally Eraser Eater asks, "Why do you keep doing that?"

"It's cool. Richard Nixon does it," says the Oldest with a smile and yet another lift of the two fingers. "What does it mean?" he turns to ask me.

I swallow my chicken and look at the Oldest. I remember all the times as a kid assembled in the auditorium at school and the Principal shushing with one hand and holding up her two fingers with the other in the air to encourage us to quiet down. "Peace," I say.

"Oh yes," says the Oldest. "'Peace and the spread of the gospel in Chechnya.'"

I almost spit out my food laughing so hard.

"What? Was that funny, Mom? You think I don't listen to the prayers at church?" And he gives me a wink.

He and I both know that this is the exact prayer that Dear Sir prays during the "prayers of the people" nearly every Sunday.

At this point Dear Sir is about to walk in the door from work and the Oldest looks at me. "Should I tell him what's so funny?"

"Nope," I say.


FAST FORWARD TO DEAR SIR AND I SITTING ON BED READING WHILE EVERYONE ELSE IS DOWN FOR THE NIGHT

I tell Dear Sir the exact same story above.

Dear Sir shakes his head at me.

"What?!" I say.

"Richard Nixon was not some hippie, Rachel. He didn't go around shooting the peace sign off at people. His fingers formed a 'V' which meant 'victory'. It's famous. Winston Churchill did it too." He continues to try to read his book.

"Well---I---" I feebly explain the auditorium story to him. He smirks a little. "I know that I know nothing about Richard Nixon."

He just widens his eyes and continues to read his book.

I felt a shove was in order and it was executed accordingly.

7 comments:

Lisa said...

*Chuckle*

~Jennifer said...

ROFL! Oh my, that was good.

Funky-Redhead said...

I had a similar moment with BMan yesterday, over Bill Clinton. I thought he wasn't actually impeached...but turns out her was, as correceted by the 9 year old. Real nice.

R said...

Susie: doubt it. :)

Here are my huge struggles with knowledge: geography, (some) history, politics, and sports. Dear Sir has them all down including theology.

But, if he needs to solve an equation sometime he will have to ask me how it's done. Or maybe if he has a question about literature---

The cool thing is that I can sing and he can't. So there.

Jenn said...

or in the UK that is flipping someone the bird.

I wonder if THAT is what Nixon meant.

R said...

Emma--thanks for the encouragement. It very well could be----but definitely NOT peace. No, no one wants peace or anything...

Susie--I struggle with liking football at all. College is digestible, but the rest---don't know about it.

I hate politics and I hate voting, although I do it. I just ask Dear Sir who to vote for (we agree on most things in that area) and off I go to the booth. All those feminists went crazy on the voting thing on my account for nothing. Oh well. I mainly worry about abortion and the marriage issue, so not much rattles around in my brain when it comes to politics.

R said...

I couldn't argue over politics either. Except my deal is that I don't know what I am talking about if someone unveils it all.

You are not usually a bad speller. I kept spelling things incorrectly when my fingers were numb. Lack of warmth to your digits?

Travis Tritt? Ack! I like you anyway...