Friday, June 19, 2009

WHAT THE HECK IS "FUNCH" ???

Back before there was an Ananda school, before crazy4coens, I had three friends…Kelly, Cheryl, and Marianne. Kelly’s family had two beach houses that were a block from the Santa Cruz marina. The houses were black and pink. Kelly’s parents stayed in the black house and we stayed in the pink house.



If you wanted to go the famous Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk - Millions of Memories There was a path that led through some oleanders to a railroad track. When you followed the track, you could cross the canyon that separated the beach houses from the Boardwalk by crossing a railroad bridge. It is this same bridge seen in the movie The Lost Boys.


Our time was fairly equally divided between flirting with the rich boys at the marina in the hope of getting to ride on the catamarans or sail boats. (That was where I saw Deck for the first time, crazy4coens. And hey… who names a kid “Deck”!) Or strolling the boardwalk and riding the rides. Sometimes we lay in the sun to tan. Mostly, we drank or smoked and stayed in the perpetual sate of baked while the oblivious parents played bridge and cribbage next door. We believed we were very grown up and wise. We were idiots. That’s how it goes.



One morning after a party, I woke up and looked for my shoes. Extra bodies littered the floor and picking my way through them was a challenge. I was trying not to wake anyone up. My shoes were a style called “deck shoes”. When I finally found them, someone had written on the white rubber sides of my soles along the outer edge “Rebecca Scuddles is Oodles of Funch!” in bright blue pen.



I was only mildly peeved. The shoes were not new. The longer I sat in the lawn chair and thought about it, the more I liked the weird little phrase, though I worried that it was some sort of slam. Was this person saying that I was too fat?



I never did find out who wrote it. But it became a thing for us to write it on whatever we could find… walls, in drain pipes, public bathrooms or in the rollercoaster car. We did this all the way home when we stopped for gas or to eat. It continued back home. “Rebecca scuddles is oodles of funch” was turning up all over town.



I got quite a kick out of finding it somewhere that I had not written it. Then I got sick. Very, very sick. The theory was that I’d picked up… trench mouth, mono and oh joy… hepatitis (not the sexually transmitted kind, thank you!) at the Boardwalk. The likely culprit was a public drinking fountain.



My shoes and I were out of commission. I tossed them under my bed and there they lay. I did not look under my bed very often. A half of a school year passed before I left public school. The shoes stayed under the bed. Then, when I enrolled at Ananda School, a year later, I re-found them. It was like finding old friends. I kicked off my stupid hiking boots that were so popular at that time and put the deck shoes on.



Someone at the school must have read the message on my feet. The staff had put sheets of butcher paper on the walls. We used this for making up classes. But we used it as a sort of message board/ graffiti center as well. So as I sat down with a cup of steaming coffee and a dough nut one morning. .. “Rebecca scuddles is oodles of funch” stared down on me.



I have never found out who put it there either. But it was sort of a welcome home sign for me. It made me belong, as stupid as that may sound. I was here and my mark was on that wall.



There was no way to know for sure what “oodles of funch” meant. I get the oodles. But what the heck is funch?



Eventually I decided to leave my message on dmarks Throwawayblog about Patrick. But leaving a message and making up my moniker of Ananda girl was not enough. I wanted a blog of my own. When I looked at the names of other people’s blogs via dmark’s links I saw clever and often witty things.



It did not take me long to come up with it. “Oodles of funch” popped right into my head. It was after all, my own personal phrase, attached to me specifically. Putting it on the blog felt right. Once done, the blog felt like home.



So what do you think “funch” might be? I’m open for suggestions. I have sort of dubbed it to mean “words”. But that may not be right. One of you may know a better definition. Well?

22 comments:

  1. I always wondered what Funch was. Thanks! It reminds me the word (if I recall it correctly) Fyunch`, which meant "friend" in the language of the Moties from Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's "The Mote In God's Eye".

    I still haven't seen "Lost Boys", but it is showing on cable channels lately.

    Deck must be short for Decker. Makes me think of the TV killer of humans, or the movie killer of escaped replicants (Deckard in "Blade Runner").

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  2. Funch, a Scandinavian word meaning, "She who wears written upon deck shoes." According to Rawson's dictionary of euphemisms, funch is having sex at lunchtime (source: Urban Dictionary).

    Good story. The story of my blog name is less thrilling, people voted on it, my brother won.

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  3. I would have just said fun at lunch time--funch. Not actual sex at lunchtime.

    Though if I remember correctly, it is fun to have sex at lunchtime.

    Still, it is unlikely that whoever wrote this on your shoes would know if you were fun to have sex with at lunchtime, much less have oodles of this particular information firsthand. But the mysterious person could easily know that you are fun at lunch in general.

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  4. I wondered about that myself. Fun at lunch was one that occurred to me too. Knowing the cool
    back story, I think it was the perfect choice for your blog title.

    The title of my blog has a back story, but it is lame in comparison to yours.

    Dmarks: Thanks for reminding me that I still haven't found "The Mote in God's Eye" yet ;-)

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  5. i thought you were perpetually hungry and oodles of funch stood for where's my fucking lunch.

    live and learn.

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  6. dmarks-- Deck was a kid who ended up at Ananda. He was upper crust... skiing champ, blah,blah,blah. A fellow narcissist and I don't like competition. A S-N-O-B. Way too good for us.

    I love The Lost Boys. It is a fun horror bit... reminds me of Stand By Me in some ways. Keifer helps with that.

    I like the idea of "fyunch". Maybe the author was a reader who couldn't spell! That appeals to me.

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  7. aleincg-- All of that in one word... those Scandinavians know how to make things simple.

    OH MY!

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  8. laughing-- This is going to be a trend isn't it?

    I actually like to have fun anytime. Wait, that does not help does it?

    Ah... my reputation!

    But yes, you do recall correctly... sex at lunch time is mighty fun! And diner... breakfast, snack time, nap time, desert time, bedtime... lots of times! lol

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  9. Cube-- Now I'm curious about your story. I'd love to hear it.

    Thank you for the "clean" version of funch! (though the other one is fun too)

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  10. billy-- It's like you KNOW me!

    I am sure that I have said those words a bazillion times... frowning with beetled brows, throwing things around and bitching as I try to find the bag with my fucking lunch!

    (When my blood sugar gets low... I get wee mite crabby.)

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  11. I think Deck's name was Declan.

    I always thought funch was a combo of bunch and fun. Cuz you are!

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  12. crazy4coens-- I think you are right about his name. Must have been a family name.

    Why thank you... I'll take that compliment! And right back at cha babe!

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  13. Are you sure it wasn't the Decker unit? ;-)

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  14. Cube-- LOL! I really can't recall one unit from another at this point! ;-)

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  15. I think it's like interpreting dreams - it has to be a meaning that resonates for you.

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  16. Citizen-- I knew you'd be the voice of reason. I suppose that would be true.

    At this point... and I think most opinions have arrived... I think that "funch" may simply be "me"... my words, my sense of humor,my thoughts, my feelings, my friends and all things that make up "me"... even the nooners. ;)

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  17. However, billy's answer was my favorite. :)

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  18. what a great story. i think funch is a portmanteau work from fun and crunch. anyway. it makes me smile to think so.

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  19. Oh my goodness....excellent story! And seeing your little phrase all over town and then in your new school. Quite remarkable. Oodles of funch. It really does sound like a fun lunch...whatever you want to imagine that might be. For some people, sex. For others, a really good sammich. Hm. But the perfect answer is that it can mean whatever you want it to mean!

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  20. lime-- Thank you. I like that. :)

    laura b.-- Thank you too. I think you're right... it means different things to different people and situations.

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