For some, it has become as common as using a period at the end of the sentence. I think it’s time to pull back and save it for those times when no other word will do.
It has been a go-to word for generations when just shouting Holy Hannah wasn’t enough. I first heard it when my father said it after he hit his thumb with a hammer. Later that day, I told my friends about the new word. We even looked it up in a dictionary. One of my friends tried it out at home. His mother immediately washed his mouth out with soap. I’ve tasted soap. It’s nasty.
I first noticed the growing use of the F-Bomb during a creative writers meeting in Dixon about 10 years ago. We had a college student who used it liberally in his work. Some older group members complained every time he used it. For the college student, it was just a word. It didn’t have the emotional impact on him the way it did the older members.
Now I hear it on late-night talk shows and during congressional hearings. Cable news talking heads use it when the person they’re talking about has thrown it out. TV newspeople used to apologize before saying it. Not so much anymore. It’s still a vulgar word to describe sex, but I’ve heard it used for salutations and farewells.
It might be too late to pull back on the use of the F-Bomb. It seems to be everywhere. I’ve heard it from the mouths of grade school children. Makes me wonder if soap is still used by today’s parents?
Yes, I’ve used the F-Bomb. I can hear my paternal grandmother’s reprimand every time. She would say, “Only someone with a limited vocabulary uses such words.” I’m sure she would have been alarmed if she had heard our president recently use it to describe what he was going to do to Iran.
Is it too late to save the F-Bomb for special occasions? Probably. Too bad. It was a good word for those times when no other seemed powerful enough to express your immediate feelings.
And then some…
School will be starting before we know it. I saw the Dixon High School band practicing marching the other day as I was driving by. Practices for Fall sports can’t be far behind.
