Dadisms

Several years ago, my sisters started keeping track of 'dadisms' - that is, certain things that our dad always said - from the threats that all parents make to keep children line (you will do it with or without a spanking) to things that basically make no sense (listen, listen, listen).  Our dad has quite a repoirtoire of dadisms, and although I always have a nagging suspicion that someday my own kids will have a collection of my sayings (they've already started), I enjoy participating in a good laugh on the old man with the dadisms.  One of our favorite ones growing up was how he would explain to people how to say our last name 'Rudowske'.  He would always say, "picture a red key for your house OR a key for your red house - a RED HOUSE KEY.  (Of course, for all you linguistics students out there reading this - Rudowske is not aspirated at the beginning of the second syllable like 'Red House Key' and the first syllable, being unstressed, moves to a mid-central unrounded vowel - but  - no matter).  Anyways, my three sisters and brother and their spouses and all children all got Red House Key T-shirts and wore them on the 4th of July to immortalize this particular dadism for all to see.  And now - you know how to say our last name too . . .