Goofy Dad Stories (2) – LOL

Goofy Dad Stories (2) – LOL

All right, I ask you this… Who gave permission to some Master of the English Language to arbitrarily change the meaning of a long-held acronym? Did some textual linguist just die and go to heaven and change what LOL means? Who gave this person the right to do that?

As I was growing up back in the day, LOL always meant Lots of Love. I distinctly remember slipping my Valentine’s Day card to my 3rd grade sweetheart into its envelope, sealing it, and writing the letters LOL and SWAK on the outside flap. Everybody and their brother knew what these letters meant! There was no debate. It was standard operating procedure on every Valentine’s Day card through elementary school!

So now fast forward quite a few years, and I somehow missed the memo that LOL now meant an entirely different thing.

Many years ago I was very proud of myself that I was learning how to text, using my flip phone of course. One of my very first texts was to a friend of mine who had had an accident and had broken his ankle. So naturally I wanted to send him some words of encouragement and consolation. So, here was my text… “So sorry to hear about your broken ankle. I’ll be praying for you. LOL.”

For some reason, my friend never responded. I didn’t find out till much later the current meaning of LOL. I was rather chagrined. This memory is such that I have forgotten the name of my injured friend. Probably just as well.