As I mentioned in a previous post, I am now working as a cashier at The Home Depot. Last week I went through the twenty hours of computer training necessary for this position. You know how on Star Trek and other sci-fi programs they do really neat computer simulations of space battles and holographic simulations of exotic places? Well, I am here to tell you that spending three days on a computer simulation of a cash register is not nearly as much fun.
Because I am from the South but now live in New England, I am often encountering new lexical items. For instance, if you want a soft drink in Eastern Massachusetts, you ask for a tonic. And I was unsure what the BAG boy was offering me at the supermarket when he asked if I wanted a carriage. It turns out that is the local term for a shopping cart.
By far the most bizarre word usage I have encountered happened during my first day working the register. A customer came in and asked if we sold bulkheads. Now, I know exactly what a bulkhead is. It is a wall that divides the interior of a ship into compartments. I didn’t think we sold nautical equipment at The Home Depot, but being new I decided to ask another associate. She directed him to the millwork department, where we sell doors. I would have expected them to be in the building materials department, where we sell walls.
It turns out, however, that there is a New England usage of bulkhead that differs from the nautical usage. Up here, a bulkhead is the slanted door that covers the entrance to a basement or cellar. Even dictionary.com lists it as being a meaning that is largely limited to this region. Of the six cashiers I asked, only three of them knew this usage.
I enjoy this kind of lexical geography. I still remember a friend in seminary who needed to mail a box to a friend. We were in Connecticut. She looked up ‘package store’ in the Yellow Pages, since that is where you go to mail a package in her native Illinois. She took her box to the store, but was surprised to see all the alcohol that was advertised in the windows of the store.
On August 29th, 2007 at 10:45 am
Oh no you don’t go telling all my stupid Illinoisan stories on the internet!!!!
Kevin, return my email! You’re in the US! I’m in the US! You’re on the east coast! I’m on the East Coast! Let’s have a beer. I’ll even buy. In fact, I’ll stop at the package store and pick up some…..boxes first.