Lauren Cooper King Ecgbert School
‘If you can’t say nothing nice, don’t say nothing at all.’
Category "A Woman who has influenced me"
Lauren Cooper Age 17
King Ecgbert School
The best piece of advice that has actually stuck with me throughout my life, was given to me by my Aunty Nicola, who I have always called, and always will, Aunty Nicky. I was around the age of ten when this golden nugget of information was bestowed on me. It was in the days of real summer, where a big round thing called the sun appeared and shone down on people, which made them dress accordingly.
So when my mother's sister came around to our house one day donned with a red vest top, a very noticeable and humorous sight caught my innocent eye. You see my parents were quite the ‘proper' couple and treated me accordingly; bath and bed before seven, no watching of ‘non child friendly' films only Disney and Pingu existed in our house and the world of sex, drugs and rock and roll was still in the far off future, well, outside the nearby pub at kicking out time anyway.
This humorous sight I saw was one of the infamous Thumper from the Disney classic Bambi, holding up his ‘thumping' foot ready to call in all of the little woodland creatures into my home, great I know. This sight was odd as I never thought of my Aunt as a Disney person, she had my cousin, her son, but in those days I believed boys were locked up until they were eighteen and didn't smell anymore, so how on earth my Aunty knew about Thumper was beyond me. Coincidently, my mother coined Thumper's little catchphrase and always made me recite it whenever I stepped out of line, in a tiny, whiney little rabbit voice, ‘If you can't say nothing nice, don't say nothing at all.' Obviously it was a family joke and the degrading, shocking use of grammar on Disney's part is atrocious, but nevertheless, the hilarity that stood in front of me of the little, innocent Thumper sitting on my Aunt's left shoulder was too much.
The only thing she said to me when I pointed out her tattoo was, ‘Lauren, do not get a tattoo, I despised mine from the day I had it, yet I'm still proud of what I achieved with it.' The thing she was proud of? Making her mother blow her top. I love you, Aunty Nicky
