December 15, 2007

Scrooge in the Twenty-First Century

Sliding to a stop

Conversation in the car on the way to the orthodontist.

Me: How are you liking A Christmas Carol so far?
With-a-Why: Well, the beginning was weird.
Me: Marley was dead.
With-a-Why: Dead as a doornail.
Me: Whatever a doornail is.
Shaggy Hair Boy: How come we are going so slow?
Me: Because of the snow. The roads are bad.
Shaggy Hair Boy: I saw the play.
Shaggy Hair Boy: In seventh grade.
With-a-Why: I didn't know Marley was a last name until all of a sudden they said Mr. Marley.
Shaggy Hair Boy: He was dead.
Me: We're going to be late.
With-a-Why: We could walk faster than this.
Shaggy Hair Boy: I don't know about that.
Me: The roads are bad. I'm being safe.
Shaggy Hair Boy: I think we'd have to run.
With-a-Why: See, at first I thought Marley was Scrooge's wife.
Me: His wife?
With-a-Why: Well, it said that Marley was his partner.
With-a-Why: So I just assumed that meant they were married.
Shaggy Hair Boy: See, look at that sign and you can see how slow we are going.
With-a-Why: Isn't that what partner means?
Me: Um, sometimes.
With-a-Why: So it was a little confusing.
Shaggy Hair Boy: He was dead.

17 comments:

Inside the Philosophy Factory said...

I suppose they could have been same-sex partners...

Teri said...

how VERY 21st century! his partner...excellent. You know, reading it now, it actually sort of makes sense.

but not for Dickens, probably...

niobe said...

And Marley *does* sound like a first name.

Lesboprof said...

That is a great sense of where our understandings as a culture are headed--same-sex partners are no big deal. And we will have to explain the concept of "Business partners."

excellent!

Sarah Sometimes said...

This is very funny.

Unknown said...

...to begin with.

Unknown said...

Weren't there two Marleys? Robert and Jacob? Marley and Marley.... whoaaaaaa


(Muppet X-mas Carol on the brain...)

Liz Miller said...

I've said it before, I'll say it again: I love your kids.

Anonymous said...

Loved it. Do you think Shaggy Hair Boy realizes he was dead?

Fire Bird said...

this is like something from Beckett

east village idiot said...

Hilarious

Margaret said...

That is brilliant. I love your family.

Mary Stebbins Taitt said...

We got 10-12 inches so far and still snowing.

Stay safe.

Real conversations are so interesting. convoluted.

have fun.

Enjoy them all.

landismom said...

Great post, jo(e)!

purpleteardropsofhappilymarriedness said...

Wow. Isn't funny how different interpretations of words can be, now see I didn't make the connection between Scrooge and Marley as man and wife as "partners" in that sense, because "partners" to me means same-sex lovers. When I first read this I never thought of Marley as female, only as a male business "partner", but not really a "partner" because Marley was so subservient and subordinate to Scrooge that it was like a master/slave relationship in my head. I think maybe if I had read this after I had begun to understand relationship concepts, I might have made the connection between them as lovers, but I read this in 5 grade I think. Happy Holidays joe, no offense but I think Shaggy Hair Boy has some issues regarding Death lol.

Yankee T said...

I love your kids. (S-H-B is hysterical!)

Auntie Knickers said...

Not being a driver I never got to hear this kind of conversation, but I've heard a few reports of similar ones. Mostly caused by teenagers having to get up for school at an hour when it is physically impossible for most of them to be truly awake. Your guys were quite sentient, considering!