Heard on Springer: "in the _first_ beginning..."

[Wilson Gray]

Twenty-ish, black male speaker"

"Well, in the _first_ beginning, the relationship was rocky."


To paraphrase:

"Yet it lives!"

Throughout my grade-school years, 1942-1950, our teachers, white nuns
of the Maryknoll Order, struggled unceasingly, yet unsuccessfully,
from the first beginning to get us colored kids to stop using "_first_
beginning" because of its illogic. Second Coming? Yes. Second
beginning? No.

Of course, I have no idea whether this speaker's background is in any
way similar to mine, but his use of "first beginning" really took me
(a)back.

As for me, I now use "at first," thereby avoiding the issue altogether. ;-)

--
-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

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