When My Flip Flops
AKA: How do you spell relief?
My fourth grade elementary school picture would have been my favorite if it wasn’t for one thing. Even though I dutifully slept in curlers the night before, the damp weather at the school bus-stop in the morning caused my flip to flop. I didn’t realize how bad it was until the photo had already been taken and was delivered wrapped in plastic weeks later. I secretly tried to color in my flopped flip with a pencil, but it never looked right.
My bad hair day in the fourth grade reminds me of something more recent: a particularly glaring typo in “Muses Like Moonlight,” my first poetry collection. One of the poems in the book that was supposed to be titled “An Autobiographical Dig” (which appeared in We’moon as “Irrigation”) somehow got published as “A Autobiographical Dig.” I have a perfectly good explanation (and an alibi. It wasn’t my fault.) for how it happened, but that doesn’t change the result. When I see it I always have an urge to add an N to the A with a pen, the way some kids back in school were rumored to have changed an F to a B on their report cards.
Every writer knows how many versions it takes to complete one written piece and how easy it is for some of us to get confused by the collection of our various drafts. Sometimes after I’ve already emailed a story submission to an editor, I see a typo (or two). Sending in the corrections with the words “Final Draft” in the subject line is no guarantee that the corrected submission will be the one that gets published.
I was in denial about what kind of speller I was until the computer Spell Check came along and proved me to be less than average at it. Even more of a surprise was that when I looked at the corrected spelling of a word alongside my version of it, I sometimes couldn’t see any difference.
My dad was an even worse speller. Whenever one of us kids would ask him how to spell something his answer was always the same and would go like this: “Daddy, how do you spell decision?” “It begins with a D,” he would announce.
The various forms of dyslexia and dyscalculia that run in my family and cause me to consistently misspell words like decision, exercise, or restaurant also causes me to cut other people grammatical slack. When someone sends me an email or a blog comment with a grammatical error or word misspelled, I don’t get out my red pen. Sometimes I find it endearing.
But the A that should be AN in “A Autobiographical Dig” is another story entirely, one that I have less patience for.
Post note: You can read more on this topic HERE.
March 7th, 2007 12:05 am
Oh, you were so cute in spite of your flipping flop. I have a photo from fourth grade with EXACTLY the same flip–flop and all.
March 7th, 2007 2:00 am
Yes, this school picture is much better than my fourth grade picture. It really doesn’t matter if the flip flops, I think the people that take these intend for them to be strange.
March 7th, 2007 3:31 am
We must be kindred spirits in this dyslexia department…I have certain words that I just cannot get right even after ALL these years—I’m still making the same mistakes. And now for some strange reason my Spell Check on the blogger thing is NOT working…So, Colleen, if you visit and see a lot of mistakes, forgive me.
But I di understand why that AN would drive one nuts! LOL!
March 7th, 2007 8:02 am
Ha! And that look is in now! That have flip, not quite curl ends sticking out! You’d be right in style Colleen.
March 7th, 2007 8:03 am
PS- and you are a very pretty little girl!
March 7th, 2007 9:03 am
Gotta love those school pictures, who are these people? Did we really look like that? Why did our moms let us go to school looking like that?
I slept in curlers every night during high school. Can you imagine doing that now?
I never understood all the fuss over grammar – what was up with dissecting sentences? All those rules!
One of the perks of blogging, the instant gratification of seeing your words in print, the ability to edit with just a click, no waiting for editors or publishing.
~susan
~patchwork reflections
~memories in a jar
March 7th, 2007 9:39 am
What a sweet photo! Love the flip that flopped.
As much as I try to be correct with spelling and grammar, sometimes I goof. So I’m never critical of people when they make tiny errors in emails, blog entries, etc. Hey….to err is human, to forgive divine. As long as I can comprehend what they’re saying…that’s all that counts.
March 7th, 2007 10:31 am
Oh, don’t you think all those school pictures look the same? We all look scrubbed clean and roller-set and ruffled after getting to school and playing a bit. Kind of sweet and endearing in retrospect.
My personal grammar fear is that one day I’ll ax a question. And while my grammar isn’t as perfect as I’d like it to be, things like that make the hair stand up on the back of my neck. I can see how the “a” instead of “an” would be an issue for you.
I’ve always heard that master quilters make a mistake in each piece, believing only god is perfect and an attempt to match that would be arrogant. Perhaps the “a” is the same.
March 7th, 2007 1:28 pm
Native American beaders also leave a bead out of place so that you won’t lose your soul while gazing at it, or sometimes it works as a signature.
This is actually my cute school photo. I entered a “worst school picture contest” at Petroville.com in 2005 with a pretty BAD one! I wanted to link to it but couldn’t find the link.
Deana, I had completely forgot that that kind of partial flip was now hip. I guess I should look at the whole thing in a new light.
March 7th, 2007 2:55 pm
i’m assuming your hair was supposed to be flipped under at the bottom instead of flipped out. i think you are very cute, anyways!!! i am so glad that there is not such an emphasis on specific hairdo’s now. i inherited my mom’s naturally curly hair…back in her day, it was very uncool and she ironed hers. can’t imagine ironing my hair!!!
and i am horrible about misspelling on the computer- i never took typing and often put “nad” for “and”. oops!
March 7th, 2007 3:50 pm
It’s supposed to be flipped up, but tightly. Because the curl fell out, it looks jagged, especially on the left side. I still have that problem today!
March 7th, 2007 4:37 pm
My parents used to do the same “It begins with a ‘D'” thing, but it was their way of making me get accustomed to using the dictionary. I have to say, it worked.
March 7th, 2007 5:04 pm
We never even thought to ask my mother. With nine kids, she wasn’t avialable for that sort of question. My dad’s answer did force us to look words up, but you have to have a good idea how to spell a word before you even try that. So sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn’t. I have come to love dictionarys though.
March 7th, 2007 6:26 pm
Ach. It’s rather a pain that slipped thru edits. If it’s any comfort, I didn’t notice or else did and didn’t retain it.
March 7th, 2007 6:27 pm
The whole it starts with a “D” rather sounds familiar.
March 7th, 2007 9:46 pm
This is a cute post and I can hear Dad saying those words as I read this. I sure do miss him and you for that matter. xoox
March 7th, 2007 9:49 pm
Endearing photo, regardless of the flip flop. I learned a long time ago to steer clear of hair talk with my wife. I think we all tend to be a bit too hard on ourselves when it comes to appearance.
March 8th, 2007 7:34 am
Don’t publishers use spellchecks? I’ve seen a few typos in books that I’ve read and always wonder about them.
You still have the exact same Gr. 4 face!
March 8th, 2007 3:30 pm
I am a horrid speller. My dad was even worse. He always said that not being able to spell was a sign of superior intelligence. 🙂
March 19th, 2007 9:16 pm
I wish that I could say that I try to edit all of my work before I call it done, as it were I simply write and print and hope for the best.
June 12th, 2013 6:04 pm
[…] 2. Some things I don’t have much patience for, including when my fourth grade flip flopped on a picture taking day: HERE. […]
June 14th, 2013 5:12 am
Your photo certainly shows an issue with hair, but honestly before reading your own view of it I hadn’t noticed it. Men are from Mars, and women are from Venus, I guess Colleen…… In my first glance I noticed only the two great smiles I found there: the one in your eyes as well as the one over your teeth. The hair was nothing more than a slightly out of focus frame over what I suspect was once then – and am certain now is – a most delightful artist with a wonderful view of life. As for the “A Autobiographical Dig,” I must defer endearment to the style of its creator – Mark Twain would have used such a title intentionally….. For anyone else its nothing more to me than a fuzzy frame around something much more endearing…….