Before long the listener seems blanketed. How much has changed? Observe the drift of words descending from adult to child-the fall of personal questions, observations, unnecessary instructions. Asking questions was “being tiresome,” while persistent curiosity got one nowhere, at least nowhere of interest. Dark riddles filled the corners of life because no enlightenment was thought required.
Halfway between our two great wars, parents whose own early years had been shaped with Edwardian firmness were apt to lend a tone of finality to quite simple remarks: “Because I say so” was the answer to “Why?,” and a child’s response to “What did I just tell you?” could seldom be anything but “Not to”-not to say, do, touch, remove, go out, argue, reject, eat, pick up, open, shout, appear to sulk, appear to be cross.
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