Everyone has a story about a word or lyric they misunderstood as a kid. For me, it was "Second Hand News" by Fleetwood Mac. When I was six or seven, this was my favorite radio song. I would often belt out the chorus -- which officially goes "I'm just second hand news, second hand news, second hand news." However, I was certain Stevie was saying "I'm just sittin' here nude, sittin' here nude, sittin' here nude..." Whoops.
Recently, my husband admitted that, when he was a kid watching cartoons, he thought the line "brought to you by" was actually one word: broughtoyouby.
As a mom, I love to hear my boys experiment with language. Not only is it cute and entertaining, but at times, it's enlightening and down-right ingenious.
For months now, maybe even a year, my youngest son has referred to a unicorn as a "uni-horn." As his portal to the "real" world, I guess it's my job to correct him before he's teased at preschool, but I just can't -- mainly because it makes so much sense. The horse with the single horn on its head SHOULD be called a "unihorn." Shouldn't it?
Another statement of his that quickly become a part of my adult vernacular -- as well as the vernacular of several friends -- is his famous line, "I can't know it."
When he dropped my keys in our massive backyard after sneakily snatching them off the patio table, I asked him over and over, "Levi, did you play with the keys over here? Or over there, next to the Tamarack tree? Or by the swing set?" Each time I asked, he responded the same way, with a sweet, baby-voiced, "I can't know it."
As much as I wanted to strangle him at the time, I later found this line to be very useful in my everyday life. It's much better than saying "I don't know" because it removes all pressure and responsibility. Where's the money for the new roof going to come from? I can't know it. What are my 10-year goals? I can't know it. What's the square root of 127,555,899? I can't know it!
I learn so much from my boys -- probably as much as they learn from me -- and I gain the absolute most when I'm not too dead-set in my ways. It would have been easy to quickly correct Levi's baby language and move on, but by not doing so, it's become something more.
Now, time to dig out that old "Rumors" record.
Molly Snyder started writing and publishing her work at the age 10, when her community newspaper printed her poem, "The Unicorn.” Since then, she's expanded beyond the subject of mythical creatures and written in many different mediums but, nearest and dearest to her heart, thousands of articles for OnMilwaukee.
Molly is a regular contributor to FOX6 News and numerous radio stations as well as the co-host of "Dandelions: A Podcast For Women.” She's received five Milwaukee Press Club Awards, served as the Pfister Narrator and is the Wisconsin State Fair’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Champion of 2019.
