Speaking to older people

think i should call my grandparents as general, captain, inmate, private, boss, manager, moneychanger & all of that it would sound fairytale to me.

I don't know if it is like this everywhere in Canada, I doubt that it is, but when speaking with an elderly person that you know we usually use Mr. or Mrs. and then the family name. That's not always the case though, it just depends on your relationship with the person, it is possible to be on a first name basis with an elderly person too.

There is one common use of Mr. and Mrs. here, though, when you're referring to two married individuals in general who have the same last name, especially if one isn't really identifying them as individuals, the usage "Mr. and Mrs. <last name>" is still used commonly here.

When I speak to old people I know reasonably well, I tend to address them informally as "ya old biddy", "old bag", "old bastard", "hag", etc, etc, etc in good jest, of course. When I get some back from them, I'll say something like "That retirement home is the best idea since sliced bread/cheese". Most of the older characters I know in my 'hood are rude, with venomous tongues that swear a lot, so I have to dish up what I'm dished out.

Ah, another quality, thought-provoking entry by the inimitable David J Winters. Thanks for that exercise in inane irreverence.

From Kirk: <<Oh, you're from San Diego? What part? >>

Hi Kirk!

I live in AbNormal Heights, south of Adams by the 805. I'm currently going to City College until I figure out what I want to do with my life ;-)

I normally call my GF's mother "Mrs LastName". I don't quite feel comfortable calling her "old biddy" a la David Winters. :)

«Castilian Spanish: tio, tia
It has to be followed by their Christian name: Oncle Joan, Tia Maria. »

Jordi, I overheard some-one from Barcelona constantly referring to any
" Tom, Dick and Harry" as "el tio". I took it to mean " guy" or something similar ?

I reckon D J WINTERS will say he's a Happy Slapper next..another new English phenomenon...seems to go with the culture ....and all in Estuary as well

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=4030257

"Hi Kirk!

I live in AbNormal Heights, south of Adams by the 805. I'm currently going to City College until I figure out what I want to do with my life ;-)"

Haha. I've always thought some San Diego neighborhoods have odd and/or uncreative names. Normal Heights comes from the fact that there used to be a "normal" (teaching credential) school there, but it sounds funny today. Then there are the neighborhoods "Pacific Beach" and "Ocean Beach" or La Jolla's "Windandsea Beach." What boring twit named those?

Ah, so if you're south of Adams by the 805, you can't be that far from El Cajon Blvd., University Heights and North Park. Cool, funky areas. Also, you're not too far from Hillcrest. When my friends and I feel like splurging, we go to Extraordinary Desserts in Hillcrest. Good stuff. Urban Grind in North Park is also a cool place to study, and I don't think it's too far from where you live.

I'm on campus at UCSD, so I'm like 10-15 minutes away from there if there's no traffic on the 805 or the 5. Anyway, I'm off...it's a gorgeous day and I'm gonna go walk to the cliffs above Black's Beach (ever been there? it's right next to where I live on campus) by the gliderport and watch the sunset. Good talking to another San Diegan!

One of these days I'll have to visit San Diego (my birthplace) and look for the site of my earliest memory. We moved away before I was three, but I have one memory of the ocean. From my description, my older brother thinks it must have been Mission Beach (also not an imaginative place name), where our grandparents lived.

Yeah, I should've included "Mission Beach" on the list of unimaginative names, as well, since everything is named mission this, mission that. But it's at least a smidgeon better than the amazingly dull and obvious names "Ocean Beach" and "Pacific Beach" (which we just call "PB" anyway). Haha.

Anyway, if your memory was on Mission Beach, maybe you remember seeing the white, wooden roller coaster/amusement area, which I think has been there for quite awhile (I think the roller coaster was built like in the 20s or something). Mission Beach is also pretty long, straight, and doesn't have any cliffs (unlike the dramatic and quite tall cliffs right next to UCSD overlooking Black's Beach here in La Jolla).

The city's website has a few small pictures of the major beaches here--maybe this might fire some of those memory neurons:

http://www.sandiego.gov/lifeguards/beaches/

Kirk, thank you! Yes, my memory is of Mission Beach, but the distinguishing feature seems to have been the continuation into Pacific Beach, where the shoreline turns toward the west. But the overwhelming sensations I remember were hot sand and lots of brilliant blue.

Apparently I have more than 1 memory after all, because La Jolla Cove was familiar, as was Black's Beach. I had an early memory of having to time the waves and run very quickly across a stretch of sand before the next one came in, and feeling frightened. When I saw the photo of Black's Beach, I realized that's the place I remember. In the website you linked to, it said that coming around the points at either end of the beach is easier than coming down the cliff trails, but that it's still risky because of the waves and tides.

"Kirk, thank you!"

No problem, Deborah :) Yeah, if you were near the part of Mission Beach where the shoreline starts to turn a bit toward the west, you were surely close to the part where Mission Beach blends into Pacific Beach.

So you went to La Jolla Cove and Black's Beach, too? Those are really close to where I live...in fact I walked to Black's just earlier today. UCSD is in the northern, elevated part of La Jolla (right by the 805-5 split), and if I cross the street from campus I can walk down some of the steep trails to Black's Beach. The views from up top those cliffs are strikingly beautiful, and you can see north San Diego County's shoreline for dozens of miles, even the very tip of southern Orange County in the remote distance (because of the way the shore curves) on the clearest of days. Walking up or down the cliffs is an experience in and of itself. Besides the changing views, the trails are largely only semi-improved and due to the crazy rains San Diego was pummeled with this past winter, have eroded into even more wild states...I should've taken my camera with me when I went today because some of the "stairs" were entirely crooked in amusing fun-house fashion, basically of no use.

Down on the beach, you may remember Black's is usually surprisingly devoid of masses of people because of its relative inaccessibility (this also has allowed it to keep its semi-official status as San Diego's nude beach, despite unenforced ordinances against it). Because people with cars would prefer to park at the free parking at surrounding lower areas with no cliffs, either Torrey Pines Beach to the north or La Jolla Shores to the south, they usually just stay at those beaches rather than walk to Black's (even tho it's not that far).

And, yeah, that site is right about the tide at Black's Beach...it can be pretty strong, but my friends who surf love it. I'm a pretty competent swimmer but a couple times I've been surprised by how strong and how far I was taken out at Black's in a short amount of time. Because of that and the naked people walking around it tends to not be a popular beach to take little kids :)

If anyone's so interested, here's a site on getting there, if you want some more visual backup of what I was describing...if you look at the "access through Gliderport" section (the entrance I take) there's some great pics of some of the "stairs" and other oddities of the trails on the way down (the pictures are obviously pre-winter 2004-5, as I recognized that many are more intact in the photos than they are now):

http://blacksbeach.org/routes.html

Ooooh, pretty!

My favorite San Francisco beach:

http://www.nps.gov/prsf/places/bakerbch.htm

http://www.soulofamerica.com/images/photosca/sf/BakerBeach.jpg

http://www.virtuar.com/ysf2/ap-Baker-Beach.htm

And here's San Francisco’s Ocean Beach, which is distinguished by the Cliff House and Seal Rocks (who dreams up these clever names?) at the north end:

http://www.virtuar.com/ysf2/ap-Ocean-Beach.htm