I’m in the Physical Therapy office waiting for my husband, who has misplaced his ever present coffee mug, the one that attaches to his hand everywhere he goes. Life is standing still as we both look for it – nothing can continue until we find it. Finally I spy it in the bathroom and emerge, exclaiming, “Great Guns!”
The young receptionist looks up, startled. “What did you say?”
“Oh, I said Great Guns. We used to say that when we were exasperated.”
She breaks into peals of laughter. She thinks it’s the funniest thing she has ever heard.
“I’m going to use that all weekend!”
Well, she did, and her buddies found it hysterical. Where did it come from? I got to thinking about it and looked up its origins. Probably 250 plus years ago, during the Revolutionary War, the colonists reacted to huge cannons on the British ships. Must have been terrifying. But what a gentle alternative to some of our more jarring expletives.
Who remembers “Aw shucks!” “That’s swell!” “Tarnation! “Oh rats!” “Pshaw!” (my grandfather’s favorite).
Could we go back?