The World is Words

I still remember sitting in the backseat of my mom’s Dodge Dart (or maybe it was the Chevy ? It was some type of crap car--I grew up mortified by my parents’ cars but that’s a whole other post) looking up at the signs along the road, at the letters and words made from the letters, seeing my world open up. I was learning to read.

I am delighted to witness this happening to Leo. He calls to me from his perch in the backseat, with continued frequency. The following kind of conversation transpires:

Leo: “Dee Dee!” (his word for me)

Me: “Yes Leo.”

Leo: “A!”

I turn to look in the direction he’s pointing and there indeed is a sign with an “A” in it.

The other morning on the way to school Leo was munching pretzels contentedly when he began exclaiming “Dee Dee, Dee Dee, E!”

I couldn’t figure out where he saw the E, because we were driving by houses with no signs. There were no letters or words anywhere I could see. I glanced back at Leo and caught sight of the small pretzel he had gnawed into the shape of yes, an “E.”

Words are everywhere. Even in, apparently, pretzels.