extirpate

My aunt and uncle split when I was about twelve.  My uncle is my father's brother.  Auntie Heather told us that she was still our aunt and would always be in touch.  We never heard from her again.  And then Facebook brought her back, sort of.  Just recently.  Of course I have no idea who she is anymore, but when I was twelve she was a cool parent, the kind that laughed a lot, the kind that didn't get angry or yell, the kind that did yoga and nailpolish and other things children find fascinating.  Apparently, now, she is the kind of woman who posts videos of herself dancing in her living room.


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When I was a child I thought the word "rubber" meant an eraser.  My parents taught me that it did, and I do not think they were setting me up.  I think they were just unfamiliar with North American slang.

I had a lot of other vocabulary issues: lorries instead of trucks, rubbish bins instead of garbage cans.  Wiping the dishes rather than drying them.  But none of these caused me nearly as much grief as going off to school with my backback full of pencils and rubbers.


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