Truth, As Strange As Fiction: What’s In A Name

Truth, As Strange As Fiction: What’s In A Name

I never liked my name. I can't really say why but I thought it might have something to do with my father always teasing me. He turned my name Janice into a twisted version of it but calling me Janoose The Goose! Yes, a goose. From the start I acquainted it with the cartoon character, Baby Huey, a large goofy duckling unable to fly. Baby Huey was meant to be laughed at. So you can see why I was upset.

My father smiled when he said it, and I'm sure he didn't mean it the way I took it. Every time he'd come into a room I was in by myself he would greet me with, "Hello Janoose The Goose." Why it was so amusing to him, I've never figured out. But I was five and did not know how to explain it to him. But maybe he didn't like the name Janice either. Over the years I learned he wanted to name me either Nora or Eileen.

I already had two sisters, Doris and Lorraine which both turned out to be the first names of movie stars. Our last name was DAY. I assumed their names were my mother's picks as well as mine since she loved everything movies. She watched the Million Dollar Movies, sometimes with me along side her when I got home from school, every afternoon at three o'clock seven days a week. Why she picked Janice, I haven't a glue. As far as I knew there were no actors named Janice, at least not with that spelling and certainly none with Day as their stage surname. I thought that maybe my father was angry when I came along because again he lost another chance to name one of his daughters. Though by the time I was fourteen he did stop calling me Janoose The Goose. Was I glad! One day I just as him to stop. He said okay. Just like that. But then he added, "You are grown now. How about 'tomato.'" "Tomato," I remember shouting. From a goose to a red, pulpy fat fruit! "Dad, just stop, will you?"

I heard his laugh as I walked the length of the hall to my room and slammed the door. I would learn from watching movies with my mother that a 'tomato' meant a nice looking woman. Clearly a meme from their generation.
Years later I would get even with my father, shall I say. I would write and illustrate my first published picture book called, Janoose The Goose. J.D. Holiday's Site The Book Garden http://jdholiday.blogspot.com