Jan and I were out walking with two of our grandchildren. There was a light breeze that completely swamped my BAHAs (Bone Anchored Hearing Aids), so I was not communicating at all well. My grandchildren, thankfully, are extremely patient.
As we crossed a field, one of them came running up to me and tried to tell me something. I thought it began with a ‘chur’. So I tried a few words. I tried ‘Jerk?’. ‘No. Chur!’ she said. ‘Shirt?’, ‘Churl?’. There was a sort of mock exasperation in her voice. She was clearly amused by my inability to figure out what she was saying.
Eventually, in desperation I tried ‘Chird?’. ‘YES!’ she screamed, laughing like mad. I asked her ‘What is a chird?’. ‘The chirds are burping!’ she said. She and her sister were both giggling by now. ‘The chirds are burping!’ they both screamed through their shrieking laughter.
Of course! The chirds are burping. How was I supposed to know they had recently discovered spoonerisms. ‘The birds are chirping!’.
For the rest of the walk we made up spoonerisms.
The bogs were darking. The shun was signing. The kwucks were dacking.
It was a lovely, happy day!