Whyever _never_?

[Wilson Gray]

TV-drama dialog:

1) "You can't run away from this, just because you want to pretend
that I _never *did*_ it!"

I've been familiar with this - to me - strange,  use of _never_ by
white people practically since I arrived in Saint Louis in 1942. I
heard it from children of my own age, I have no idea whether this use
of _never_ was just getting started, then, or had always been the
case, but, because of Jim Crow, I first heard it only after leaving
Texas.

Since 300,000,000 million native-speakers can't be wrong, I have to
assume that the problem is mine. But, IAC, after seventy years, I
*still* feel that  the only "correct" form is,

2) "You can't run away from this, just because you want to pretend
that I _didn't *do*_ it!"

You'd think that, after nearly three-quarters of a century, I'd never
notice this "never," anymore. But, I just can't get ready for it.

<sigh!> I really have to use, I _wouldn't notice_ this "never," anymore.

It's probably a consequence of brain-damage at birth or something.

Youneverknow.

--
-Wilson
-----
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-Mark Twain

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org