Mr. FixIt is a great travel companion. I have absolutely no sense of direction so between him and Mavis the GPS, I always know just what turn is coming up and what lane to be in. And, unlike Mavis, Mr. FixIt has a million stories that keep me laughing the whole way.

He was telling me about his grandmother yesterday as we drove. Get this…his grandma brought four little boys under the age of ten all the way down here in the mid ‘50s and camped in a tent in a state park for two months at a time…by herself! No electric. No water hookup. No showers. She cooked on a campfire and let these little boys run like the wind. I am in awe of her…I would have LOVED to have met her.

I am forever ribbing Mr. FixIt for his accent and his colloquial turn of a phrase. Appalachian English actually has it’s roots deep in the ancestry of the people here. English, Irish, and Scottish folk have a different way of speaking and it has come down through the generations and resulted in words like “rench” for rinse, “crick” for creek, “boosh” for bush. Things like “we was” instead of we were. “Them” instead of they. They put the letter “a” in front of things like, “I’m a’fixin to go.” They drop the “g” off of everything…”goin’”, “fixin’”, “bein’”. It’s not a matter of education either. Mr. FixIt has three degrees and he still says some things that make me scratch my head and wonder. Being a word nerd, I vacillate between wanting to correct everything to being highly entertained.

When we were driving on Friday, we were behind someone and Mr. FixIt said, “Look at that guy. He’s driving like he’s a Texan!” I thought to myself, “How can he tell that? Are Texans bad drivers?” I brushed it off and drove on. An hour or so later he said, “Look at that…he’s a Texan!” I looked at Mr. FixIt with a puzzled look. He just shrugged and said, “Well, he was!” Again, I didn’t question.

Yesterday, we were on the interstate again and he said, “Oh my gosh…I think that guy is a Texan!” I saw the license plate and said firmly. “He is not! He’s from New York!” This time Mr. FixIt looked at ME weird. He turned back around and looked at the guy as we passed him and he said, “Yep, he was a Texan!” I couldn’t stand it any longer. I had to say something.

“Honey, how on EARTH do you know he’s a Texan just by looking at him???”

Mr. FixIt gave me a funny look then started laughing. “He was a’TEXTIN’! TEXTIN’!”

Seriously…I almost peed my pants laughing.

I love this guy…he’s a never ending source of pure fun! ❤️

“Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.””
‭‭Psalms‬ ‭126:2‬ ‭ESV‬‬