My younger sister has a whole crop of things she’s said as a child that we call her “Sarahisms.” There are gazillions of them, but the three most prominent are as follows:
-One day, she was playing on our old “for the kids to play around on” computer in the kitchen and beckoned our mother. She then asked Mom, in a straight face–
“Mom, how do you spell–”
She them proceeded to gasp exaggeratedly and put her hands up to her face.
Mom was understandably puzzled, looking around with an expresion of mild bemusement, but it wasn’t until my sister repeated the query with the same exact sound and facial expression that she realized that she was trying to ask how to spell “gasp.” It’s OK in the telling, but I tell you, in person, the way she said it was just… priceless.
-One evening, she happened to notice that the bulb in our porch light had gone out. She then proceeded to dash to my father and gravely state: “Dad, the lightbulb ran out of light.”
-The only one of her most profound statements to be made directly to me came when we were watching a tape containing a local production of “Beauty and the Beast.” It was actually a series of dance numbers put together by the dance studio she danced (and continues to dance) with, but it had very elaborate costumes, long choreographed numbers, and cool dramatic lightning. The Beast was played by a nice gal she and my mother knew, and for most of the dance she wore a (rather nice, actually) Beast costume. Nothing odd about this, until the final dance. After Belle’s love redeems the Beast, the girl comes dancing out on stage as the Prince, now in a fairly ordinary uniform-style outfit (with tights). My sister them proceeds to exclaim, with great excitement in her voice:
“Look, Ally, she’s wearing a people costume!”
Lordy, just about laughed my heiny off at that one. Still do, as a matter of fact.
My sister is now almost 13 (we’re 6 years apart), but is still prone to these endearing impromptu bon mots. Every time she says something bungled or unusual, she now dryly observes, “Better put that one down on the list…”
Of course, these seems to be common in our family. Among our various malaproptive (is that even a word?) inside jokes include “Is that a salad…?” (Dad), “Can’t you just draw CHEESE?!” (Mom), and “I don’t know, I usually feel tired after I fall asleep.” (Moi. Had to dig on myself, of course. :P)
