Are you prepared to be a POW?

There are years of my adolescence that seem to be completely absent from my memories. It is not because I was drunk. Cuz I totally wasn’t. Really, I wasn’t. (I should probably just erase that sentence since it has now given you all the wrong idea).

The best idea I have as to why this is the case is because they weren’t especially fun times for me. Not bad times. Just not the best times.

Seventh grade is one of those years.

New school, new friends, new sports—and I don’t remember much at all.

I do remember two days in Geography class. One was the day we gave our very first class presentations and when I went back to the teacher’s desk to get my grade, he asked if I was LDS. Apparently the LDS kids don’t pee their pants when they give a presentation because they have been giving talks in Primary* since they were four.

The second day was when we talked about Southeast Asia. Mr. J** fought in the Vietnam War and after a particular battle he was captured by Americans (he fought for America, but was of an ethnic origin that made them wonder if he was the enemy in a stolen uniform). During questioning, he was asked a variety of questions to prove that he was who he said he was. I’m sure there were lots and lots of questions, but he only shared two. After they discovered he was *supposed* to be from Wyoming he was handed a piece of paper with the name of two Wyoming towns. They asked him the pronunciations.

Kemmerer (pronounced just Kemmer)
And
Dubois (pronounced Do-boys—we don’t believe in correct French pronunciation around here)

Since that day, I have been somewhat obsessed with knowing the *correct* pronunciation of the towns around where I live. I suppose it is so that when I am captured during battle***, I can prove my Americanism (I know, not a real word—but it sounds good). Towns such as Tooele (to-ill-a) and Eureka (ur-ick-ah) in Utah, and the above mentioned towns in Wyoming.

So tell me—are you prepared?

*The children’s class during church. Every so often each child will give a 1-2 minute talk on a gospel subject. When they are really young words are fed to them by their parents.
**Not his real initial
***Probably only a battle against a brunette, freckle-faced, pale army should worry me.