Garbage can language

A sign of the times is a story last week from St. Charles, Mo. The City Council is considering a bill to ban swearing in bars along with profane music. The leaders of that St. Louis suburb contend such an ordinance is needed to help police in controlling rowdy, dirty-talking crowds. They are trying to keep their town a "decent place to live." The dirty talkers say such a law may be against their civil rights. They are probably right. Quality of a person's speech is a matter of intelligence, taste, and manners… not laws.

This columnist has never claimed to be an angel; however, in the matter of foul language in mixed company, I've pretty much toed the line of social decency. That attitude may be considered "old fuddy-duddy" by some of the younger generations. Cussing is nothing and foul offensive language is a fad to what appears to be a growing percentage. We all are aware of what a majority of people consider unacceptable and disgusting talk nowadays by even kids in grade school. It is rampant in certain circles. Don't know why. Do they get it from their parents? From gutter talking entertainment celebrities? Who knows? I'm guessing the kids do it as a matter of "peer acceptance," part of showing they are "with it." My advice is to clean up their acts before they hit the job market… because professional managers and older folks, including me, are not impressed.

In the "olden days" ladies didn't cuss. At least not in mixed company. A sincere "damn" or "hell" was sometimes acceptable. Most laboring men cussed a lot but gentlemen weren't supposed to do it in mixed company. I got my mouth washed with soap when I was about 5 for repeating just one of the words my cowboy uncle had used during a five-minute soliloquy, delivered after a horse kicked him in a bad place. That whole episode turned out badly, because during the "mouth washing out," I bit my mother's finger which elevated the punishment into a spanking.

Being raised in a world of cowboys, hardrock miners and loggers did offer unlimited opportunities for expanding a young man's "anger expression" vocabulary. Working in the Forest Service on trail crews and telephone lines gave me a high school diploma in expressive oral "frustration relief." From there, the U.S. Army infantry training and overseas adventures topped things off with what might be called a master's degree in advanced "high level cursing." Some of this was in foreign languages.

Having attained that advanced proficiency, I got in considerable work towards a PhD by spending time with fellow men in duck blinds, and at remote fishing and hunting camps… mostly before first wife Iris took over supervision of my general behavior after I was 30.

This background on my education is written to show the dirty talkers why I am qualified to judge their mouthings as embarrassingly pathetic… amateurism.

G. George Ostrom is the news director of KOFI radio and a Hungry Horse News columnist.