Triniglish|Trinididioms spoken and explained #117 | "ABC Ketch-Ah-Crab" | Yuh is ah Trini |
"Tonay! What de hell is dis?" Well, that can also be said for the handwriting that is seen today. Penmanship seems to be a lost art. However, when I attended school Penmanship was of critical importance. We had to write correctly; it was important that we formed our letters correctly and write on and in between the double-spaced lines on the copybook. Our first encounter was with a slate and a special pencil for writing on the slate. Then came the adventures of the copybook. Lord those were the days.
One of the funny things about writing on copybook pages was the infamous error that needed to be corrected. No eraser? Well, that was not a problem... a little spit and rubbing solved the problem and, you guessed it, left a mess on the page. Writing in a zig-zag fashion like a crab leaving marks on the sand spelled 'blows in yuh clothes'. We used to get rapped on our knuckles for writing in what was called ABC ketch-ah-crab handwriting. That meant our handwriting was past the first stage of an early headache - just bad!
Elementary school in Trinidad meant 'licks' and the teachers would pull your short pants really tight and wacked you good with a hog plum whip or if you were really unlucky a guava whip! Poor handwriting ensured licks every day and that complimented the fact that you were considered a 'hard head' and would never amount to anything. I don't know who coined the term 'school days were happy day' but for most of us it was school 'daze' and that meant it was a scary time once the school bell rang.
Some of us got it right and our penmanship improved not always because of the licks but simply because ABC was not a good period for proper handwriting skills. Standard one showed good improvement as we learned to write freehand connecting letters with ease.
ABC Ketch-Ah-Crab or as some would say ABC catch-a-crab happened for most of us in the early period of our lives. I don't know what one can say today for adults who simply continue the tradition of ABC ketch-ah-crab handwriting. Penmanship is a lost art and even the handwriting of doctors, many university graduates, is appalling. However, no one gives a damn anymore. Schools don't penalize students for poor handwriting skills anymore. The computer keyboard is the accepted norm of the classwork material (teachers simply don't want to deal with the handwriting issue).
I like the term ABC ketch-ah-crab and even today this term is quite acceptable or even appropriate to describe the handwriting skills of so many individuals. Nobody writes letters to anyone with the advent of text messaging and emails. All reports are computer generated and handwriting is left for signing documents to make them legal. It is quite fair to say the ABC ketch-ah-crab handwriting will continue to rise and not subside as should be the case.
Zig Zagging on a copybook page was once looked upon with scorn and given the infamous title of "ABC ketch-ah-crab". In a way, I like the fact that we chose to describe crapaud foot handwriting as "ABC ketch-ah-crab" because it reminds me of my childhood days in Trinidad. Long live the name 'crapaud foot handwriting, and it appears that because of technology abc ketch-ah-crab is no longer an endangered term to use to describe horrible penmanship.