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| Issue 60 Foreword |
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Page 1 of 2 Now I’m not going to join the ranks of the empty-headed columnists and vacuous editors who harp on about something faintly amusing that happened last week, or their family life, or what the weather has been like or what’s in the coming pages of their respective magazines. I am Cornish and if there’s nothing to say, I won’t open my mouth. Father always said to me something like ‘only a fool will break a silence when there’s nothing to be said’. However, in this foreword I will be going slightly down the route of ‘my child said the funniest thing recently’. So if you wish to skip this foreword, then I understand. Now I’m all for my sons (Joseph, aged four and Jago, aged one), using a bit of Cornish dialect. Joe even knows a few words of Kernewek. Every time we clink glasses to say ‘cheers’, Joe will shout ‘sowena’ which is Cornish for ‘cheers’. However, the other day we decided to go to the park and Joe was ready to go and I was trying to get Jago to put his wellies on, which always becomes a play fight.  I'll give them 'tuss'. Jago Pengelly dances in the turnips. Joe was ready to go and was getting impatient, waiting outside the house. He came back indoors and said: “Come on you tuss. Let’s go.” I was a bit shocked and said: “What did you say?” Joe said: “Well, you’re the only tuss I can see around here!” Now Jago is two in January and is picking up few words. His first word was ‘trachhtor’ and he loves sitting in grandfather’s old Marshall tractors. He says a few other words as well, but not many yet. Anyway, he’s lying on his back on the floor taking his wellies off when he points at me and says ‘tush, tush, tush’. “Hell, now they’re both at it,” I think. “Maybe it’s time for me to have a good look in the mirror.” I let it drop as I didn’t want to encourage bad language in children, but where did Joe pick up a Cornish insult like ‘tuss’? |
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