Minding your Bs and Ps, not to mention your Mmmms

My pal Mary sometimes sends me Word for a Day words. I was going to give you the one from this morning but I already forgot it - I only remember the story that goes with it. I thought it would be easy to find online, but WOW, I came across a flurry (not a word for the day) of words for today. It seems everyone likes to share daily words. So far, for July 7, I've found razzmatazz, froufrou, fallacy, genuflect, foreclose. What would we get if we put them all together, I wonder? See my previous post about famous last words.

I gave up trying to find the one Mary sent when I got to this: Ala Wai. Oops, Hawaiian, meaning water way or canal.

I had to turn to the dictionary because although I remembered Mary's word, I wasn't sure I remembered how to spell it.

Here is her word from this morning, used in a wee tale, as the greatparents from Scotland might have said. See if you can pick it out.

When I was 13 I begged for a parakeet. My mother hated birds, but she agreed and I used my allowance to buy a yellow bird I promptly named Boops. The name was based on information I scrounged up (no Internet then) about parakeets and teaching them to talk. Bs and Ps, that was the trick. For hours I would sit in front of the cage repeating "Boops! Boops! Say hello to me, Boops!"

Perhaps it was the diet, maybe it was the cage, or it could have been boredom, but Boops never said a word. Not a word. One sunny day I cleaned the cage outside and in a moment of inattention, Boops flew away, high up into a treee, then another tree and another. I shouted and cried. My mother dropped what she was doing and ran down the street after him shouting "Boops! Boops - come back Boops!"

What I remember most cleraly what she was wearing: orange and pink plaid shorts, a loud pink and red flowered shirt, sensible shoes. I was embarrassed at my bird's name, but I was mortified by what she wore.

Today, as I write this, I am about the same age as my mother. I won't tell you what I'm wearing, but it's closer to what she wore then, than to what I thought she should have worn. I'm as happy in this gear as she probably was in hers.

I have never owned another parakeet. If I did, I might call it Bilabial. I would never chase it down the street calling its name, for fear of what the neighbors might think.