In case you didn't notice, I left one of my offspring un-named yesterday. I did this because this one, my oldest, chose her own Indian name, and it needs some explaining.
First, let me take you back...
Come on....
Farther....
A little more....
STOP!
Yes, right there, in my parents' house when my brother, sister and I all lived there.
My brother is about 2.5 years older than me, and he is the only boy in the family. He also got the love-of-words gene, and is an avid reader and used to love to make up words.
He also liked to tease us...me and my sister.
All of our 3 bedrooms were upstairs in the house. My brother's was at the top of the stairs, then my sister's, then a bathroom that we all shared, then mine. At some point after dinner, our parents would send us upstairs to take our baths and ready ourselves for bed. So one at a time, we would take our turn in the tub, then put on our PJ's in the bathroom, toss our clothes in the hamper in the hall and go to bed.
Well...my brother had other plans.
He would go in and take his 'bath' (which he later confessed was really just putting some water in the bottom of the tub and swishing his feet around in it) and then he would come out of the bathroom. If you notice, he skipped a step. The 'put on your PJ's' step.
Oh, not to worry...he was wearing his underwear...on his head. I will leave to your imagination and good humor what he had on the rest of him.
Yeah. That. Ok. Well.
Then he would go to either my room or my sister's room and stand at the door. He would say, 'Cass (that's my sister)...Cass...Cass...' until she finally looked over to see what he wanted. Then he would run away and yell to my mom that my sister and I were looking at him in his birthday suit.
OR...he would keep said undies on his head and put another pair on his bottom and stand quite proudly and announce, 'Me big Chief Wonka-Tonka!'
I am not sure how the skivvies on his head made him feel that he was a proud Indian Chief, but somehow, he related his elastic head dress with the ornate decorations of the Native Americans.
(If you are a Native American, and this offends you, I sincerely apologize. It is not my intent to disrespect your culture, nor, I am sure was it his. This is merely a true recounting of an actual historical event as it occurred. And, as I am sure you can see evidenced through history, many people do things which at the time seem perfectly sane, but then in retrospect, one sees the inanity of the action but seeing as time has passed, there is nothing to do but learn from the experience and accept it as part of who you are.)
Anyway, the story of Big Chief Wonka-Tonka has now been passed down, (although it has not been re-enacted, thank goodness!) and so Elizabeth, being the eldest, has decided that this name should be hers, with a slight adjustment.
To understand the change that she has made to Wonka-Tonka, I must take you on another time travel.
Step forward from my childhood to the day of Elizabeth's birth...
We are in the hospital, and the new baby has just been born. There is the lusty cry of a newborn, and the doctor pronounces 2 things:
IT'S A GIRL!
SHE'S GOT HUGE FEET!
Elizabeth has never lived that down. In fact, she continued to support this proclamation by having feet that grew very shapely and beautiful, but alas, also very big.
And so, Elizabeth christened herself...
Big Feet Wonka-Tonka.
And I say, if the shoe fits...
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