NEAT: brief, clear and pointed, cleverly phrased, epigrammatic, deft, dexterous, cleverly done, tidy, methodical.

According to http://www.urbandictionary.com

NEAT: Wonderful, terrific, cool, clean, orderly, tidy , serving a spirit straight without ice or mixer.

I wrote my first diary in 1974.  It was a small 5cm by 8.5cm  brown Holiday and Travel Book, given to me by Mum.  I was a 16-year-old New Zealander, off on a school geography trip to the Fiji Islands. The travel book was to record my trip.

The A to Z challenge prompted me to read this diary again in search for ideas for the challenge. Several things jumped out at me.

• I have lost contact with all but I person I write about on the trip.
• My hand writing was incredibly tidy (NEAT)
• My group of friends were quite naughty for 70’s standards.
• We could never replicate this trip today, Health and Safety regulations would  deem the trip to dangerous.

Two words I used frequently in this  diary  are NEAT and GEE, which  were common slang words used in the 1970’s.  Neat – this is cool and Gee Wiz –oh wow!  So I was using pretty CooL (another 70’s favourite)  words. Here are some more 1970’s slang words/phrases:    GroovY,  SToked,  Nifty,  TotalLy AwEsoMe and MaY the ForCe be wiTh You.

In my diary, everything I enjoyed doing  was “really neat”.  A bus driver was really neat, I met some really neat people. We had neat fun. The fish were neat.  Then there was GEE. Gee I felt sorry,  Gee I had fun.

The ultimate entry was – “GEE the market was NEAT!”  

I can’t say this diary was the most exciting read, however it was factual and reading it transported me back to my penultimate  year at high school, and the fantastic opportunity our Geography class had going to Fiji.   It also  reminded me of people I once knew and left me wondering what happened to them.

A to Z Challenge using all the letters in the alphabet reminds of my typing class at high school.

No computers back in the 70’s just a manual type writer, with a metal cover hiding letters allowing just enough room for fingers to push keys and type.

The quick brown fox jumps of the lazy dog

This sentence used every letter in the alphabet! And we practiced, practiced and practiced.

The correct hand and finger placement for speed typing important and enforced in class. Fingers always hovering over middle row of letters; asdfghjkl

I never did master using all 8 fingers correctly, instead my fingers dance over keyboard searching for the right letter. Mistakes made, but now quickly erased  or corrected with the back space key or spell check.

The concise Oxford Dictionary of current English, 6th edition 1976 was my bible before internet and online dictionaries.  I still use my trusty dictionary, albeit less frequently.

The first entry in this dictionary is:

A, noun, plural A’s. First letter of the alphabet; (Mus.) sixth note in diatonic scale of C major; first hypothetical person or example; highest class (of road, academic marks, population as regards affluence, etc); from A to Z, over the entire range, completely; from A to B, from any place to some other place

This 1976 dictionary is where I will get my A to Z words and meanings from.

Enjoy