Pat in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, says that when his brother Paul was young, he misunderstood their father’s references to Miami. Paul always thought his dad was referring to his own personal ammy, and the family still refers to that South Florida city as Dad’s ammy. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Dad’s Ammy, a Wonderful City the Rest of Us Call “Miami””
We had a voicemail from Pat Harkin in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, which is outside Jacksonville.
Pat says that in his family, they refer to the city of Miami, Florida as Dad’s Ammy.
That’s because when Pat’s family lived in Miami, Pat’s brother Paul would hear their father use the word Miami.
And as little kids do, he just sort of gave it a different interpretation.
He thought the my was possessive.
He thought the father was talking about his amy.
So to this day, the family calls it dad’s amy.
Dad’s amy.
Oh, I love it.
I love it.
Share your childhood misunderstandings with us.
Words at waywordradio.org.
That’s so cute! This reminded me of an anecdote that comes up in my family often. We’re Dutch, and when my brother would ask my mum when his birthday was, my mother would reply it’s on dertien mei (May 13). As it happens, in Dutch, the month of May is pronounced exactly the same as the personal pronoun ‘mij’ (used in the same places as English ‘my’). I bet you can guess where this is going. When my brother then told somebody his own birthday, he replied it was on ‘dertien mama’ (thirteen momma’).