Teenspeak I

This was not going to be my subject today, but it’s my blog, and I will do what is necessary to scare attract my readers.

As I sat at work today, reading “Is it Just me or Is everyone a Little Nuts!” (Great book, made me laugh today when I really needed it.) I got a text message from my 21 year old step son;

               “im gonna whoop andy.”

(Notice the spelling – took practice to get it just right.) With many thoughts going through my head there was only so much I could actually say to this. With as much time as he spends behind a computer screen I wasn’t sure if ‘andy’ was real or a net friend, so I said the 5^th thing that came into my head,

               “Who is that and why?”

               He replied back, “the ginger”

For a whole 15 seconds I’m trying my best to understand this statement, wondering just what a “ginger” is, and wondering why he wanted to take out his aggressions on a bottle of spice. Understand, I am 53, I am proud that I have lived this long and am still going strong, and I have also experienced two different sets of the “Teens” but I was still a little lost. 

Okay, very lost. Among our house hold are 5 hounds, three whippets and two Italian greyhounds. One of the IG’s does have a ginger color, sort of and his name is very close to “andy” (Ator) so I was a little concerned but I didn’t wish to bother his mom at work.

I replied, “Are you talking about one of the dogs”

I went through the next two hours waiting for a response. I never did receive one.

When I arrived home his car was gone so I assumed he went to handle his problem, but his sister, 19 years old and very knowledgeable at Teenspeak, was home.

“Where’s Jake?” I asked, pulling her attention away from the video game she was immersed in,

“I don’t know.”

“Does he have a friend named ‘Andy’ and why would he want to whoop him?’

“I don’t know.”

She was a big help. I then read off the text message that he sent me, following with the question, “What is a ginger?”

She laughed and then explained it to me. A ‘ginger’ is a kid with red head, real pale complexion blue eyes and freckles.

Then to my surprise Jake comes bouncing in the door, I asked, “Have fun?”

“Yeap!” he answers as he bounces up the steps – I won’t see him till dinner time.

But my mind is still reeling, why ginger for a skinny red haired pale kid with freckles. Then it hit me, Gilligan’s Island, Ginger from Gilligan’s Island. I grew up on that show – can’t seem to watch it now but every episode has been run into the ground by every channel including the TV channel. Now I had it. Who says you can’t learn anything from watching TV. (oops, see comment below)

UPDATE: He actually was not going to ‘whoop’ any one, he went to ‘scoop’ him. Scoop = Pick up.

You are never too old to learn!