For example,
Mother: Hey Junior, where you was?
Junior Boy: I wuz down da gym talking story with James.
I'm guessing it's not necessary but here is the translation.
Mother: Hi Junior, where were you?
Junior Boy: I was at the gym shooting the breeze with James.
Anyway, what I'm getting at is that when I was living in Hawaii, I often ran into friends on the street or in town. More than once, I passed friends while driving in opposite directions but we both stopped, backed up and proceeded to talk story! This probably doesn't happen now with the advent of the cell phone and all, but at the time it was a very important part of the way we interacted with friends and maintained those relationships.
The reason this all came to the front of my mind was I actually did talk story the day before yesterday. Just by chance, an old friend from Katsura Golf Club had some business in an office near the school. He was walking by my house which is across the street from the school and he saw my name on the entrance to my house. Pretty big coincidence because Sapporo is not a small city. He had borrowed a putter from me back when I was working at Katsura and he brought it to the house. Maybe his purpose was to check out the scene at my house, because I told him clearly, two or three years ago, I didn't need the putter back. Anyway, he finally called me and told me that he was in the office near my school and to drop by on my way back from Kitano where I had been working. To be honest, I felt a little uneasy about having to adjust my day to include a visit, but I decided to go.
We chatted and I surprised myself at how much I talked. When I'm in the classroom I am always conscience of how much I talk and constantly holding back. Apparently it had been a long time since I could let it go and just talk story. About thirty minutes later and feeling stress free I went home had lunch and then off to the afternoon lessons. I talked so much I thought I was going turn portagee!!!
So what I'm really getting at is that I'm going to start a talk story lounge type lesson for free! Anybody who like talk story, just come on by... das right! free 英会話！ Details have yet to be decided but I'm guessing Thursday or Friday nights... or Friday afternoons???
Longwindedly,
Pat
