Watch your language in public ~ July 13, 2005

David Heiller

“Where the @#%* is the car?’’

A young woman growled that question as we made our way through the crowd at Pettibone Park on the Fourth of July. She had a couple kids in tow.

My daughter, Malika, and I hurried past her. “Did you hear that?” Malika asked? “How could she talk like that in front of her kids?”

I shook my head in the darkness. We had just watched some spectacular fireworks, but hearing that little cherry bomb of a verbal one took a little of the fun away.

That lady had said a very serious swear word, at least in my mind. You can probably guess the word. It’s definitely not one you would expect to hear a mother use around her kids, But it seems like that is changing, that people are swearing more in public.

I mentioned that to Malika. She told me about a group of people she had served at her job as a bartender a few days earlier. A group of people who swore like the proverbial longshoremen and they had their kids in tow. She was shocked and a little saddened hear it.

I’ve seen other examples too. Groups of people my age, swearing loudly or making sexual references that I really don’t care to hear.

When I told a co-worker about my observations, she had her own story, about. a person—a young woman, no less—who sprinkled that certain swear word through most of her sentences during a social gathering. .My co-worker even worked up the courage to correct her. That got a laugh and some ridicule in return.

People are cussing way more than they need to.

Okay, on a scale of 1-10, this is not a 10, or even a seven. We have a lot of other concerns these days that make this one seem so trivial that maybe I shouldn’t even write about it.

And most people do swear. I can’t lose a fish without a few choice words following it to the bottom o f the river. They just come boiling out of an unseen source. Or hit your thumb with a hammer and see what happens.

But this is different. It’s in public. It’s like air pollution that no one else should have to breathe. It’s a very ugly habit. Hey, if you want to swear in the privacy of your own home or campfire or fishing boat, be my guest. But if you’ve got kids around, old people, women (oops, I guess women are exempt now), or anybody within earshot, stifle it. Take a little pause. Leave the cherry bomb unlit,

Say something else. Take your English lessons from Mrs. Simon to heart. Get creative.

“Where in the Sam Hill is my car?”

“Where’s that son of a Gunderson car?” “Where the heck is my car?”

Or if you are really mad, “Where is my gol-dang car!” I’ve got a friend who occasionally uses the term gol-dam, and when he uses gol-dam, you know he is very, very upset. That’s the ultimate swear word for him. It’s his Mount Everest. Ifs funny in a way, yet I respect him for it.

I don’t expect many rude cussers to change their ways from reading this column. It probably will just generate a laugh. And as Malika noted, a lot of this behavior is brought on by one too many bottles of Budweiser.

And if you are like me, you will not say anything when it happens. Maybe give a look of disapproval, and that probably won’t do any good.

Still, I hope people can keep it in mind. Use a little restraint when it comes to swearing in public.