"From out of the Past"

"Dad", said my six-year-old son, "How do you spell 'Heil'?"

I was in the next room, so he didn't see my double take.  His only exposure to Nazis, as far as I know, has been 'The Sound of Music', but we haven't watched that movie for a very long time.  Wondering where this was going, I dutifully spelled out "H-E-I-L" and waited for the next shoe to drop.

"Ok, Dad, I know how to spell 'Silver'" said Elias, "but how about Ahoy?"

Aha, I thought, this is about pirates, which are a current obsession in our house.

"Elias, pirates don't say 'Heil'," I said indulgently.  "They say 'Avast", or 'Arr!'"

"Dad!", said my son, with that 'don't-you-know anything' tone that is the specialty of the child of clueless parents, "I'm not talking about pirates.  I'm drawing a picture of the Lone Ranger, and he says: 'Heil Silver, Ahoy!'"

At least in our house.

Comments

[Terry Cowgill]

Haha! Heil indeed.

My children were both born in South Korea. When my eldest first memorized the Pledge of Allegiance, he learned the ending as "One Asian under God."

[Lisa]

Ahoy, matey! We love the pictures of pirates that hang on our refrigerator from Emily and Elias. Please give them BIG hugs from their Berea cousins!