Today when I got home the kids were all hyped up. When I walked in the door they were immediately jumping all over me (yes, I loved it!). When I bent down to their level, Megan leaned in for what I thought was going to be a kiss on the cheek. Instead I got a big, wet lick!
Me: Megan! I don't want to be licked!
Meg: But you like Dante to lick you. (does she have to have an answer for everything??)
Me: But I don't want you to lick me. That's gross.
Meg: But I want to lick you.
Me: We don't lick people. What are some things we lick?
Megan: A lollipop!
Me: yeah, and an ice cream cone.
Megan: What else?
Me: We lick stamps.
Megan paused for a minute, gave me that "you are off your rocker!" look. "Nooo. We don't lick stamps!"
Then I stopped short. She was right, we don't lick stamps. At least not anymore and not in her lifetime. And I began to think of the mimeograph.
In kindergarten and first grade, I remember mimeographed handouts with their blue and blurry ink. By second grade the mimeograph was made obsolete in our town by the photocopier, with its crisp black letters. My siblings, who started school three and nine years behind me, never experienced the mimeograph world, just as Megan has no knowledge of the stamp-licking era.
Fortunately, we resolved the matter by agreeing that envelopes rightly belong in the Things-To-Be-Licked category. (yes, I know they already make peal and stick envelopes, but they haven't caught on the way sticker-stamps have and so most of our envelopes still get licked).
I did occasionally receive those mimeograph copies - although I never would have know that was the name of it.
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