Triniglish|Trinididioms spoken and explained #88
Yuh is ah Trini | "Crapo-foot writin'"
Penmanship has never been a skill that I can boast about - not then and certainly not now. Now that does not mean to say that I don't or can't write legibly - that I can certainly do! However, when I recall my days of writing on the slate given to us in elementary school I can only come to one conclusion... Dat was real crapo-foot handwritin' boi!
Look, when someone says that your hand writing is real 'crap-foot' they really mean that it is illegible writing or simply very poor penmanship.
I remember a friend in high school who had the neatest and certainly a classic style of cursive handwriting - damn I was jealous of his skill. Indeed it was a skill but it came naturally for this guy. Some people go on to become masters of calligraphy but in my case I was always forcing the point (and breaking too many pencil point on the way). My work was not neat and the constant 'rubbing off' i.e. erasing sometimes left holes in the copy book pages. I was a master of untidy presentations in elementary school accompanied by a classic skill of crapo-foot handwriting.
It took me some time (and very tired fingers too) before I could write legibly. Today I know that anyone can read my handwriting but it is not 'beautiful' as is the case with many who still put a pen on paper to write. Today we don't use fountain pens with that pot of ink on the desk to refill the pen. Most of us use ball point pens and most of the time it is simply used to write a check or to sign our names. I guess it could be argued that with the advent of computers and smart-phones for 'texting' that the art of handwriting is on the way out. In that case one can say that a majority of people today don't write enough to write well on paper! That means that there is a lot of crapo-foot handwritin' out there! I feel good knowing that now... LOL!