Martin Paddles a Canoe
Last
week I mentioned that this week’s post would include an audio version of
“Martin Harrison Takes a Paddle,” the story that won the 2012 Ingrid Reti Literary Award. But first, some
etymological considerations of two words that figure highly in the story…
The
word canoe
comes from the Arawakan language of Haiti. Canaoua first appeared in
English in the 1500s, taken from the notes of none other than Christopher
Columbus (who some revere & others feel should’ve received a paddling). The
noun referred originally to a narrow boat made of a log with the center
hollowed or burnt out. After a few centuries, the meaning broadened and the
noun verbified, creating opportunity for the sadly seldom used
pick-up line, “Voulez vous canoe avec moi?”
The
word paddle
takes up a page and a half in the Oxford English Dictionary. Interestingly, one
meaning of the word paddle has no known source. We Americans seldom use paddle
this way – to walk about in mud or water.
There’s also a paddle which refers to a
small leather bag (diminutive of pad), & another paddle which refers - for
unexplainable reasons - to the sea-toad
or lumpfish. The paddle we might use in a canoe is a
relative of the word spade, & some linguists contend
it was initially spaddle. Originally, it meant a long-handled spade-shaped
implement used for clearing a ploughshare of earth or digging out thistles.
In time, it morphed into the paddle we know today.
Thanks
for indulging me in a bit of word history. Below, you’ll find the twelve-minute
audio file for “Martin Harrison Takes a Paddle,” a story of a fourteen year-old
boy attending Cancer Camp. I hope you find it satisfying.
Marvelous, moving story, Charlie--and so wonderfully read! Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteGreat story, Charlie. "Sense of place" is right. You put us right out there on that lake watching the bedpan moon. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteAhoy Dawn & Barbara Jean,
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for popping by. I love how writing brings up unexpected bits of one's life. Writing this story put me right back at Camp Bluff Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains (I spent about ten summers running YMCA camps in my youth). I'm pleased you like the story.
Okay, so "...use paddle this way – to walk about in mud or water" must have led directly or otherwise to the emergence of "puddle," which meant boggily progressing through such muck without an implement of propulsion, which then, of course, led to the expression of being up "somewhere or other's" creek without a you-know-what at the very time you have to take a... "piddle?" Yes or no?
ReplyDeleteCharlie, just great job. Loved it and believe me you deserved the award. I know Ingrid would be thrilled you won. As others have said, terrific sense of place and poignant story and character. San Bernardino. You weren't far from me. I went to high school in Barstow. As Ingrid would say, no there's a story in that.
ReplyDeleteHey Mindprinter & Steve,
ReplyDeleteThanks heaps, & Steve, being up a river without a piddle could be quite...well, uncomfortable, I suppose.
Wonderful.Congratulations on your award. I really enjoyed your story.
ReplyDeleteI love this story. Congrats on the well-deserved award.
ReplyDeleteFascinating stuff about "paddle" And it's so interesting that canoe is an Arwakan word. I wonder how many words we use every day are native American and we don't realize it.
Hi Anne & Wanda,
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, & I, also, would love to know how many native American words make up our day-to-day language, or Arabic, Lithuanian or Swahili words for that matter.
Wonderful, Charlie! Your writing is fabulous and telling of the story adds a whole other dimension to it. Yes, I found it thoroughly satisfying :-)
ReplyDeleteHi Terry,
DeleteI'm so glad you made it to Wordmonger - thanks for dropping by, & thanks also for the kind words.
Hi Charlie,
ReplyDeleteIngrid Reti's daughter, Irene, here. I love your story so much! It's exquisitely well-written; the voice is so strong and I admire how you revealed the situation Martin is in slowly. The image of the bedpan moon really stays with me, and that shining head. I think Ingrid would really have liked this story. Congratulations!