I’m almost done capturing my family’s old Beta tapes in digital format. Tonight I came across one of the last of the Beta era, a fifteen-minute tape from 1991 of my brother playing soccer. He was four.

Four-year-old soccer, I have to say, is pretty great. They play six on a side, no goalies, on a quarter-size field with something like a size two ball. The games are short, probably twenty or thirty minutes, with two halves. Having to aim for the opposite goal in the second half seemed to be just at the limit of four-year-old comprehension, so I imagine the only reason to even have halves is so there’s time for the Hi-C-and-orange-wedge break.

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This afternoon I was sitting on a patio outside the law school when a little boy, five-ish years old, walked right up to me and announced, “My name is Tigger. T-I-Double G-E-R, that spells Tigger!”

“Yes it does,” I said, being rather untalented at interacting with small children. I was afraid I was going to have to figure out if he was lost, but then his mother appeared at the top of the stairs.

“Dylan, please come carry your bag.”
“My name is—”
“Tigger, please come carry your bag.”

Dylan/Tigger got the bag as requested, then came back over to me and said “[mumble mumble] T-T-F-N! T-T-F-N! Ta ta for now! Ta ta for now!” before scurrying off.

“Bye!” I said, again lamely.

The only place I’ve ever seen TTFN is on a dorky list of “IM abbreviations” that my dad used to have taped to the side of his monitor. It listed the standard LOL, ROFL, etc., but it also included some weird ones (BG = big grin, FIIOOH = forget it, I’m out of here) that I couldn’t believe anyone ever used. The list seemed to be designed to make parents look silly.

But now I’m wondering . . . is TTFN/”ta ta for now” a standard thing people type/say? Is it a Tigger thing? Is there a TV show on which Tigger spells his name and then yells “TTFN! Ta ta for now!”? Maybe the kid is just an enthusiastic speller and collector of acronyms.