Jayden Cool
questions Sometimes, however, weeks would pass before it crossed Sam’s mind to visit the scurgy little shed he thought of as “the oxygen bar.” Then, when the guys from Castles in the Air came to retrieve the empties (a thing they were often lax about), Sam would go out to his oxygen bar,open the valves, run the tanks dry, pile them in his son’s old red wagon, and trundle them out to the bright blue truck with the air-bubbles on it.Question 1: With regard to “weeks would pass.....with the air-bubbles on it.”, my understanding: Suppose that 5 weeks would pass before it crossed Sam’s mind to visit the scurgy little shed he thought of as “the oxygen bar.Then, during these five weeks(maybe 2 or 3 weeks later), when the guys from Castles in the Air came to retrieve the empties (a thing they were often lax about), Sam would go out to his oxygen bar,open the valves, run the tanks dry because he wanted to have the tanks delivered all the time (the oxygen cost him nothing out of pocket). Is my understanding correct? Question 2: “a thing they were often lax about” implies that according to the rules, maybe they should have retrieved the empties every week after they delivered the full oxygen tanks to Sam. But they didn’t do it that way and neglected if the oxygen tanks delivered last week were empty or not (If they had found that they were full or most of them were not used, they would have stopped delivering until the tanks were empty). Right?  Question 3: What does “scurgy” mean?
May 22, 2016 2:11 AM
Answers · 2
I think you are correct on questions 1 and 2. I do not believe "scurgy" is a real English word. It's a made up word that any English speaker would understand to mean dirty, nasty, questionable. The reason we would know that it means dirty and nasty is because it is similar to many words which do mean that. Scummy, dirty, slimy, a scourage (A source of widespread dreadful affliction and devastation such as that caused by pestilence or war), etc.
May 22, 2016
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