My sister and I often got invited to the same parties. Once, when I was about seven, both of us received birthday invitations that had a fancy RSVP slip that had to be cut along the dotted line. Below the dotted line, it said:
I can/ cannot attend your birthday party. (Please cut one)
I took my scissors and painstakingly cut out ‘cannot’. My gaping hole became a bit too gaping though and I went sadly to my father. Both ‘can’ and ‘cannot’ had fallen victim to my scissors. My father laughed out loud, I remember, and explained that ‘cut along the dotted line’ was with scissors, but ‘cut one’ was with a pen. Now, how was a seven-year-old to know that? I remember how self-righteously upset I was!
My father being my father, though, sat with blade and pen and altered my sister’s RSVP slip, making it ‘We can/ cannot attend your birthday party.’ Then we had the joy of signing both our names at the bottom of the slip.
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