Continuing a family tradition, I’ve bribed my grandson to learn a very interesting name for a lake in Webster Massachusetts.

This is bribery I myself participated in along with my grandfather. He paid me the princely sum of 1.00 dollar US currency in 1960 or 61. I am certain I invested it wisely in candy and baseball cards. As I am certain my grandson will make a similar investment, although he hasn’t quite grasped the concept of money, preferring pennies to quarters.

We play this game called treasure hunt. He has a map we printed up and I hide coins, i.e. Pirate Treasure, around the house. Now don’t feel too bad for the little guy, he’s taken me for about forty dollars worth of pennies since the rule is once he finds it, it is his to put in his piggy bank.

So what is this lake you might ask?

The lake is, of course, Lake CHARGOGGAGOGGMANCHAUGGAGOGGCHAUBUNAGUNGAMAUGG. Which is translated from the Native language as ” You fish on your side, I fish on my side, and nobody fishes in the middle,'” 

Apparently the invading Europeans, I mean the Pilgrims so welcomed by the indigenous peoples, never learned the meaning and fished the lake barren. But I digress.

Anyone can pronounce it, with practice. And, like riding a bike, once you learn, no matter how much time elapses between repeating the name, you will always remember how to say it. My daughter was the beneficiary of a bribe to learn this herself. She may perhaps not recall actually receiving the compensation, but this is fake news. She was compensated and still recalls the name to this day.

So the tradition lives on. Soon as the youngest grandson masters the spoken language, he too shall reap a largesse by learning the name and no matter when I vacate the premises the memory of this tradition of bribery shall endure.

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