While driving in Manhattan a couple of weeks ago, I saw this truck. The name of the company made me smile -“Shleppers”. A perfect name for a moving company. I like the word “shlep”. I feel it as I say it. It is very descriptive. I used it many times when my daughters were young. I remember shlepping the kids from one place to another. The image that comes to mind is holding little hands, carrying many bags – diaper, school, grocery and walking at a speed that was a little too slow for my long legs and probably a little too fast for their little legs. The word is in dictionary. It is slang and it means to carry, take, haul, drag, to go or move with effort. Schlep can be spelled with or without a “c”. WordPress kept wanting to add the c.
Shlep made me think of another very descriptive word -hoopla. I like that word too but I use it in the context of no hoopla. Hoopla is a word I really see and feel. All that extra stuff you don’t really need, all the drama, the fluff, the over the top “ness” of events. Dance recitals, weddings, bridal and baby showers, parties can all fall victim to hoopla. By definition hoopla is 1. great excitement; bustle 2. showy publicity; ballyhoo. Now there is a word to investigate ballyhoo. I will leave that to you to do.
As I have been pondering these two words, I realized it is difficult to live a simple life with all this shlepping and hoopla. 🙂
