a deficit of skipping
A fairly typical secondary school conversation about my brother in the late 1970′s:
Secondary School Peer (SSP): you know your brother?
Wendy: yes, I know both of them, do you mean [name]?
SSP: No, the other one, what’s wrong with him?
Wendy: What do you mean ‘what’s wrong with him’
SSP: well, you know he’s not normal…
Wendy: how is he not ‘normal’?
SSP: you know, skipping down the corridors, laughing to himself and clapping his hands
Wendy: Oh (signifying acknowledgement that my other brother does all these things), yes, he does that when he’s happy
SSP: he’s happy in the corridors at school?
Wendy: yes, he’s always been able to entertain himself and find things to make him smile
SSP: He’s weird
He is still a happy soul, able to entertain himself and skip down the street when he’s happy. It’s as cute in a man in his 50′s as it was for a boy in his teens. I just bounce, I find that the less complex up-down movement reduces the likelihood that I will fall over.
A deficit of skipping must be a very sad thing, as indeed the beautiful, be-hatted, talented, lip-synch-averse, wiggly, much missed Billie MacKenzie recognised:
The Associates sang Skipping
March 31st, 2009
Blimey, a true blast from the musical past – who on earth remembers the Associates apart from their mums?
I understand the desire to skip and to bounce up and down, except a surfeit of upper body ballast prohibits such a display these days.
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