3V0944.01 Blue Moon: Color names: for Peggy “blue” means white, color of eye-
ball (8/23/80)

A month ago I put the MG on insurance and began driving down town in
it. Feeling I spend too little time with Peggy, I’ve been going out of my
way to do so. A favorite after supper activity has been taking trips to
Jacob’s Beach. Even though Peggy doesn’t go to the lab with me, she
gets these trips in “Daddy’s new car” or “Daddy’s little car.” On the
ride down, we often see cows at Goose Lane farm or horses (near Half
Mile Road). We see both (if not too dark) coming past farmer Offredi’s
on Little Meadow Road. Peggy delights in the trip, but even more in the
playground at the Beach, which she refers to as “the fair”, saying often,
“Can we go to the fair?”

Last month, I took the three children to St. George’s Carnival. Peggy;s
biggest thrill was the Merry Go Round. She road again and again. I was
as delighted with her joy as she was to ride the horses. Peggy was so
thrilled she beamed with delight, held on tight and rode up and down,
no longer noticing the world beyond herself. I have never seen her so
filled with joy.

At Jacob’s Beach is a swing set for children (three. One for infants, one
for grown ups, and the third) which instead of seats has ‘horsies’ for
riding. The horses are of different colors — but none of them are blue.
(They are black, white, red, gray, salmon, white, but none are blue.)
Peggy said she wanted to ride the blue horsie. What could that mean ?
She always got on the one she wanted by going to it. We talked a little
about the colors and she explained: “The horsies have eyes (going from
one to another). They’re blue eyes..” (all the hoses have white eyes,
with a black ‘+’ as the pupil; Peggy has blue eyes. I recall her
description of herself (by contrast with Scurry who had an eye
infection around ( 8/23/80 ) of her BROWN eyes “My eye is blue and
yukky I’m not a dog.”) The conclusion then is that “blue” to Peggy
means “eye color” and that for her the salient eye color is of the ball,
i.e. white.

We rode the horsies for a while that evening and Peggy noticed the
full moon hanging over the harbor in the early evening.
“Daddy, see the blue moon.”

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