TARDY!
DAN MILLER
January 26, 2007
My wife's been a bit under the weather this week, so I've been in charge of morning school duties.
OK, OK -- so thanks to me -- my 8-year was slightly tardy for school once or twice.
I can only hope those tardy marks don't show up on her PERMANENT RECORD!
I still remember Mrs. Thompson in 5th grade telling me, "Danny, you've been tardy twice this week, and this will go on your permanent record."
I wonder.... where exactly is this permanent record of tardy arrivals kept?
And for how long does it hang over our heads?
Do potential employers go back and check our PERMANENT SCHOOL RECORDS to see how often we were tardy?
I hope I haven't caused my daughter to someday be turned down for a great job -- or perhaps a home mortgage -- because she was a minute or two tardy a couple of times in 2nd grade!
Come to think of it.... back in the 1960s, I applied for a job at a radio station in Richmond, Virginia and thought for sure they'd hire me..... but they didn't..... and I'll bet it had something to do with that PERMANENT SCHOOL RECORD showing I was TARDY in 5th grade!
It's a wonder I was ever accepted into the Army.
And, about that word, TARDY....
The dictionary defines it as, "moving slowly".... or, "delayed beyond the expected or proper time."
It's really a perfectly fine word.
In fact, it's such a good, descriptive little word that I wonder why we adults don't use it more often to describe things in our world.
It's use is now limited almost exclusively to indicate kids being late for elementary school.
I never call home and tell my wife, "I'll be a little tardy for dinner tonight"....
And you never hear the public address person at the airport announcing, "Delta flight 26 from Atlanta will be 30 minutes tardy today"....
And, in football, you never hear of a penalty flag being thrown for a "tardy hit."
I'll close for now and send this essay over to Scott, who posts these things on the WSMV website for me.
I have a feeling he keeps a permanent record of when I'm tardy getting them to him.
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