Changes in how people use language and even how words are used

I find that at 75 my 35 year old daughter shared the most my belief system and so we often have the easiest time talking. My almost 50 year old son and I have an easier time in some ways because we are both males and he and I spent a lot of time together because I became a single father when he was 3 years old and he didn't see his biological mother very much between ages 5 and 10 years of age.

So, the hardest person for me to communicate effectively with is my 27 year old daughter partly because she spent from age 7 to 18 in private schools whereas I only spent one year (my senior year) in a private school so I tend to have much more of a blue collar attitude even though because of college I have more of a white collar way of dealing with things now even though at core I'm still blue collar or (where the rubber meets the road) so to speak.

Communication was much different around the people I grew up around than now. People said different things but we were much more general about how we spoke we were usually not very specific they way my daughter is after going to the best private school in my County where many of her Classmates went to Ivy League Colleges like Harvard and Yale and Princeton and Stanford. So, my daughter is always getting on my case about not being specific enough in how I communicate.

Being somewhat general in how I was taught to communicate was actually a way to protect myself growing up. You had to be very careful what you said to people so you could stay alive in public schools as I was growing up so mostly it was better to say nothing at all.

Also, hugging people I'm close to is something I like to do because I came of age in 1969 in Southern California during when people were often alternative in their thinking. I had many friends who went to college and then joined the "Back to the land movement" which was about buying usually 2 1/2 acres or more in a beautiful place and then building your own home there. You could do this very inexpensively in the 1970s and early 1980s still. I was able to find 2 1/2 acres of beautiful land with a spring of water running on it with a beautiful view of Mt. Shasta at an elevation of 4000 feet with up to 7 feet of snow there in the winter. But, without electricity or phone service then. And this was before Cell phones in 1980 and so we home schooled our kids there after we built our A-Frame for around 5 years until the oldest was 12 years old. This saved us an amazing amount of money that we would have had to pay out in rent by building our own house then even though we didn't have a phone or electric lines there. However, we did have a septic Tank and a toilet and we had two wood burning stoves, one for heating the house that my father welded up for me and one antique wood cook stove for baking bread and cakes and cassaroles.

What I'm trying to get at is that I have trouble having conversations with my 27 year old sometimes because she demands I be very specific in how I speak with her. However, I'm 75 and changing now doesn't really work for me anymore. I still pretty much speak the way I did in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

I was 21 in 1969 and 41 in 1989 and in 2023 I'm 75. So, changing now isn't realistic. Luckily, my 27 year old daughter is beginning to accept the fact that I'm likely not going to change. As a result we had the best time together from about last Wednesday until I left Sunday hanging out and buying stuff and getting her car serviced and hanging out with a friend in Oxnard who helped take care of my wife's father while he was still alive in the early 2000s until 2008 when he passed away.

So, be careful if you are 50 or so years older than who you are talking to because basic communication might be really different now than when you grew up. Also, the meanings of words often change through time or the meanings sort of slide into somewhat the same meanings but also subtlely different.

For example, the saying "Have a Good One!" Started as one male friend to another meant "Have a good lovemaking with your Girl this weekend or anytime".

Whereas I was in a Starbucks Sunday in Buellton drive through and I heard the young woman serving everyone say "Have a Good one!" and I thought this must have different meaning than it used to have.

Then, when I left with my food and drinks she said to me: "Have a Good one" and I realized she meant:

"Have a Good day!" Because the original meaning would have been inappropriate to say to customers.

So, subtlely and not so subtley words meanings and phrases change over time.