Baby Carriages

When I was a little kid on the East Coast my mother would push my baby brother around in a baby carriage. People kept stopping her and asking if the baby was a boy or a girl.

I thought it would be much simpler if baby carriages were either pink or blue instead of the dark colors used back then. It would save so much time if my mother didn't have to keep stopping and telling people my baby brother was a boy.

A few years later we moved to California and babies didn't ride in carriages. Instead they were pushed around in baby buggies.

That was only one of the strange differences in how people talked.

And that's probably one reason I became interested in languages.

I took Latin and German in High School and French in College. Although I majored in English, I also took quite a few college electives in Linguistics just for fun.

Later I learned American Sign Language from an interpreter who I later married, worked at California School for the Deaf for many years, and raised three Deaf foster kids.

Of course the baby carriages were only one minor influence, but they helped set me on a path that made a difference in my life.

We never know when some little thing can start us in a new direction.