Saturday, January 21, 2012

Let Me Introduce Myself

     Somebody once said a name is a mortal blow from which a person never recovers. I wish my parents had thought of that. My first name was a horror; there are no really nice nicknames for it, and my mother insisted on not only using all four syllables, but generally added my middle name as well.  I discovered that in Maryland, at least, it is not necessary to have a court order to change your name. You can change it just because you want to so I waltzed up to the DMV and am now officially just plain "Anne".
      The church we attend is a Queen Anne parish, and dates back to 1692. Almost every year we have a Colonial service - usually close to July 4th, although this photo is from Maryland Day - and a lot of people get dressed up for the occasion.  Because I am a history teacher, I sort of got "elected" to either make costumes or provide patterns for other members of the congregation. Well, as long as I'm doing this, I might as well make nice costumes for my husband and myself. Besides, I convinced myself that I could use mine for my classes. Sure thing. You betcha. One of the fellows at church began calling us The Squire of Joppatowne and the Lady Anne, and so we have been ever since.
     I have other names as well, some of them even repeatable. Most folks call me Dani, which is a contraction of my late husband's surname, just as somebody named Anderson might be called Andy. When I was a teenager I was painfully shy (a confession which sends those who know me now into gales of laughter) and was called The Mouse. I am still Aunt Mouse to a couple of people's kids.
When I was growing up, my mother's mother convinced me that I was a princess. Somehow, we were related to the Austrian royal family. Tracing your family tree can be most enlightening.  We're from Germany, not Austria, and there's not a drop of royal blood in my veins! I think most of my friends saw through this fiction well before I ever caught on, but "Du bist ein Prinzessin" stopped me in my tracks more times than I'd like to remember. Any slip up, and my Grandmother would tell me sternly, "Look at Princess Anne. She doesn't (fill in the blank) and she's just a little thing." Yeah, well, Princess Anne didn't have to pick string beans or clean the cat box, so don't give me that jazz. I grew up hating the woman, and she never did a thing to me. Yoo-hoo, Your Highness, I'm sorry for all the things I said!
     (I did have a German cousin who married some very low-ranking Austrian peer while I was still in high school. She had twin daughters the year I graduated, but she died in an auto accident when the girls were eight, her husband remarried, and we completely lost contact. I don't even remember the man's name!)
     So, the Lady Anne and the Squire, also known as the Lord of the Manor, have three daughters and eight grandchildren. We also have two great grandsons. One of our girls lives near us, one lives in Winchester, Virginia, and one lives in Nashville. As I said, I am a history teacher; I specialise in the period from Henry VIII to the end of the American Revolution. I go to schools in Harford County in costume, take clothes for the students to put on, along with lots of props, and we talk about what it was like to live in the 1700s. I love it! I absolutely adore teaching! I am also very much involved in miniatures, kit bashing, and furnishing houses. I'm fast running out of room for regular 1 to 12 houses, so have gone to doing more and more 1 to 48, also known as quarter scale or even O gauge.
     My dad was an Episcopal priest and my mother was, well, "a piece of work" describes her about as well as anything, but I do wonder what sort of tales my grandmother told her, so that probably explains a lot. You'll be hearing lots and lots about my mom. She made me what I am today. Oy!

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