Looking Back ...While Going Forward: A Grand Parent's Name given by their Grand Children, is a Never-ending Story in of It's-self~

Hunter Reed Lane our first of four, He gave us our beloved Grandparents name

When you are married and have children you decide sometime in that period of waiting what their given name will be. Names are important because they are forever with you. They represent you and become how you are known and called by others. They pertain to you!

In our family on the Johnson side of the clan I was the first grandchild. When we had our first child he was the first Great Grandchild, and the first Grandchild. When our first Grandchild was born he also was the first on our side of the family. Under these first circumstances the first normally sets the name for the grandparents. Which I think is an interesting topic. Bringing us to the question how did you get your grandparent name?

In discussions I have had with other grandparents, one of the things I usually ask as we are talking and praising our grands is what do they call you? How did you get your grandparent name? There are some really interesting stories out there and they are fun to listen to.

I am hoping by writing this story that it will encourage those that read this to share how their grandparent name came to be. It will not only be fun, but informative for those following in our footsteps some day!

We always called our paternal Grandparents Grandpa Johnson and Grandma Johnson, and our maternal grandparents Grandpa Engle and Mommie Engle. I do not know why, but we just did.

When our parents first grandchild, our son Chris, came into the world, I encouraged the name Papa for our Dad, because he was a gentle giant, that was soft spoken with a loving spirit, a sense of humor and loved to tease, it suited him and all of his grandchildren adored him and he loved hearing them speak his granddad name of Papa Johnson. Our Mom was a high spirited auburn red head, with a prickly nature, but she was a woman who loved her family and whoa be to any that thought otherwise, there were a few referees at some baseball parks that felt the wrath of her defensive spirit, she became Granny Johnson, and it suited her well and she thought her 9 grandchildren were the best of them all, as well as her two great grandsons, that she got to meet and know, and of course they were!

When it came time for Curt and I to become grandparents, Curt had already established himself as Big Daddy Lane, our young neighbor Ryan Lloyd begin calling him that after they moved in across the street, and Curt would be outside on the porch playing his guitar, Ryan would holler across the road and say "hey Big Daddy play me a tune on your guitar"...and of course he would. Later when Curt fully retired from his job at TVA and then his just for 'fun money' job at Home Depot, he began his woodworking business and called it 'Big Daddy Lane Creations'. So I assumed I would be called 'Big Mama', I thought it would be appropriate since I am a very tall woman, and one of my favorite movies was ' an adaption of a Tennessee Williams play 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof', with Orson Wells playing the role of Big Daddy Pollitt and his wife Mildred Dunnock, as Big Mama, Paul Newman, son Brick, and Elizabeth Taylor as Maggie, the ner do well, money chasing, daughter in law.

When our first grandson Hunter was born, and he was a toddler, he had the most beautiful head of red curly hair, of which I took many pictures of it gleaming in the sunlight, my Mom and Dad had one of the picture's put on a little shopping bag with the word's 'I'm Big Mama's Boy', I was thrilled with that sweet and thoughtful gift, but the rest of the story is this:

When Hunter was a baby and a toddler we had the opportunity of keeping him here with us in Tennessee, while his Mom Barbara, and his Dad Chris were working long hours in the restaurant business in Virginia. Hunter was learning to talk quite well, and he would say Big Daddy, but he would not say Big Mama. Did not even try. When he needed me he would simply say "Mommy", and I would say "no Hunter I am Big Mama." One day he was coming down the hallway and he stopped in front of me, stuck out his little pointer finger and said, "you Memommie." I said "well okay then," and that is how I got my Grandma name.

Whew...Later that day when my folks came over for a visit, Hunter called me Memommie in front of my Mom, and she had the funniest look on her face, I told her that Hunter had decided that would be my name instead of Big Mama, she smiled and told me that when I was a toddler we lived with my Johnson Grandparents and my Uncle Ronnie in Clinton for awhile, while our Dad was finding us a place to live in Sacramento, California, while he was serving in the USAF. I would have been about Hunter's same age at the time, she said smiling wistfully "at that time I too called my Grandma Johnson, 'Memommie'...full circle moment here for sure. I guess after moving and living away for the rest of our growing up years we reverted to Grandma Johnson.

Curt was Big Daddy and I was Memommie, and the other three grands, Oliver, Sophia, and Lydia have all followed with the same name, although it has been shortened to 'Big' and 'Me', when Oliver was small, and then the girls have called me Memo when they want to make a point, but normally I am just known as Memommie, and that dear readers is just fine with me. I guess we will see what the next generation comes up with, it might be very interesting indeed!

So if you have made it this far in this writing...I ask you to please share your thoughts, stories, and names of your grandparents and why, and those that have not got there yet, what would you like to be called? Of course your little's may have their own ideas!