Outta the Mouths of Babes
Four years ago, when we learned we would soon become grandparents, our daughter offered us a chance to tell her what the new arrival (a girl, we knew by then) should some day call us. Ann said at once "she can call me Granny Annie."
Not to be at a loss for an alliterative match, I said "and she can call me Grampa Grumpy." I figured I'd get around to a replacement before the little princess reached two and had names for things and people. I didn't.
As you know, the names GanGan, Nanna, PawPaw and such are infantile abuses of names similar to the ones we offered. So as fate would have it, I soon became Dumpa Dumpy. I guess it was easier to say. But it gets worse.
Today I got an email from our daughter in South Dakota, who will be visiting along with grandaughter Abby this week. She said she was reading Fragments on her computer the other day when four year old Abby walked in. Abby saw my picture on the weblog front page.
"Hey, it's the Dumpster!" she said.
My daughter cracked up. Laughing, she asked "Abby, do you know what a dumpster is?"
"Yeah. It's a trash can."
A rose by any other name...
Comments
That's a pretty cute nickname, Grandpa. I think it could be worse.
Back when we were deciding what ours would call us, our daughter-in-law's parents chose Nana and Papa. Those were my first choices, but we had to select others. My kids (like I) had always called their grandparents Mammaw and Pappaw, but my husband was determined that he would never be called Pappaw (too Southern!). So he chose Grandpa and I decided Grandma was as good as any. Guess what? They all call me Grandma, but his name became Pappaw from the first kid through the sixth.
Posted by: kenju | August 21, 2005 8:03 AM
HAH!
You're right, the only way I can leave comments is to right-click on your permalink and open a new window. Strange!
Posted by: Melinama | August 21, 2005 1:57 PM
That's a good one! My father decided he really wanted the full "grandfather" thing. However, the eldest started to use it at an early age with a slight variation and Dad wondered what he had done. Instead of "grandfather" we had "granduffer."
Jan
Posted by: Jan | August 21, 2005 5:18 PM
Yeah, I hear the gal is pretty pleased with herself about that one. She's got sass, no doubt about it. Asked her yesterday to be our flower girl, and Holli to be one of Jen's brides maids. Will "Dumpster Photography, Inc." be on hand?
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Posted by: yes | February 3, 2006 12:47 PM