I am trying to write a story about growing up in a section of Newton Mass called “:The Lake.” It was a wonderful experience for me and thought it would be an interesting idea for a book. One of the things I remember was a weird language we spoke. We used words that I have never heard of since like Mush and Divia and Gimmel. I have no idea what they are. They sound Yiddish but The Lake was all about the Italians from San Donato Italy.
Well, as part of the research for this book, I put a classified on craigslist.com. I offered to trade a cup of coffee for an hour long interview to talk about their memories and especially their vocabulary. I never expected to get a single response. In fact, I have received about 20 responses in 24 hours! Most of them very helpful and I am eternally grateful. But here is one of the best replies I have received:
im 27 grew up in lake just had fathers fun at magnis as wellas other fam members in past i know older peeps inlake that grew upin 60s n 70s if u interested get back mush
This is a direct CUT AND PASTE of his email to me. How can I talk to him about the vocabulary of The Lake if he doesn’t speak ENGLISH!! What is that ?
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