Looking for shelter (metaphor)
The narrator recollects his school life, and tells how his teacher corrected his pronunciation, as he used to say sound th instead of s, and words like “colleges” and “universities” he pronounced “collegeth” and “univerthitieth”. The narrator metaphorically calls the first time his teacher had corrected him, “the first battle of my war against the letter s”. The narrator did not give up, and was determined “to dig the foxhole before the sun went down”, which means he wanted to avoid future battles.
The issue of laziness (metaphor)
The narrator dwells on the problem he and the members of his family used to attend the therapists for help. In general, it was the problem of laziness, but each one had laziness of his own. He, the narrator, had “lazy tongue”, because his pronunciation was bad. His sisters Amy and Gretchen were undergoing therapy for “their lazy eyes”, and his sister Lisa “had been born with a lazy leg”. The narrator’s father used “to accuse his mother of having a lazy mind”, and he accused his father of “having a lazy index finger, unable to dial the phone when he knew well he was going to be late”. The narrator says that he likes an idea of a body to have the part, which might be called lazy.
Practicing at home (metaphor)
The narrator used to attend speech therapy sessions to eliminate his lisp. The teacher gave him a lot of work to do at home, but when he was at home “his lazy tongue fell upon his equally lazy ears”. Such childish unwillingness to do any kind of homework is metaphorically presented.
