My full name is Barbara Lynn Twining.
When I asked my mother why I was named this she told me
"Well your father wanted to call you "Bobby" but I thought that was a boys name."
My dad's name is Robert Lewis Twining but everyone called him Bob. So in a way he wanted to name me after himself.
And now that I'm older I think he really wanted a boy after two girls.
My Mom continues: "So I battled with him to name you Barbara and allow your Dad to call you Bobby. I loved the name Barbara and thought it was a cute girls name"
So there you have it.
I never legally had this name but was called Bobby all my life by those that knew me.
When I got to school, of course they made me go by Barbara.- hated it!
When I was in Jr. High (McDaniel Jr High Denison Tx)
there were 2 Barbara's that made cheerleader our 7th grade year.
Barbara Jacobs (who I am still friends with) and myself.
It was customary to have your name embroidered on your cheer leading "letter" that was broad casted across your chest on your uniform.
So.... The cheer coach asked if one of us could go by a nickname.
I immediately stepped up and said "My name has always been Bobby"
At that point, I had never asked my mom how to legally or properly spell Bobby
so.....I chose Bobbi for my letter.
...... and there you have it.
this pic is proof my dad wanted a boy-
he gave me his pipe to carry around in my mouth....
and my mother let me do it!!!
This picture still looks like they were battling, three years later........
Me- Bobby - in a very girly dress carrying my own little purse
but with a manly PIPE hanging out of my mouth!
1 comment:
Comments from Joanne on Facebook that I wanted to add to my story.
Mayree Joanna It is amazing what two years at childhoods' age makes in the individual experience of shared lives. When dad left we fell so quickly into poverty, I was 10-12 yo, and was intensely impacted by it. At 10 I was well aware of our parents' differences, too, and was often a weapon between them. I endured the energy by making them "disappear" from you younger one's awareness. I. Am so happy the experiences did not impact you, barely a blip...or perhaps simply not recalled?....Alas, Those two energies are in my Arsenal and repertoire....I was traumatized....I probably still have post-1950s traumatic stress...p5ts.��
I know Lou remembers things from her perspective. At 12-14 yo, Lou's impression/decision/focus was obviously on getting her righteou$ piece of the pie, and well she's done of that...she raised a flock of Williams men. i got the opposite program: blocks to my abundance (mom taught me how to live in poverty).
. She told me often (we talked like girlfriends my whole life) that it was her lot in life, to go without. Mom did not get out of poverty until I left home at 17, or shortly after the pix of her at the sewing machine...(where she worked a second job as a seamstress. She got part of my meager pay checks every time for years after. ) Alas, it was not enough to keep the house on forest lane in the family, but in those years up to her death, She often thanked me, and said my leaving home allowed her to rise out of poverty. My leaving and contributing, gave her a hand up. Lou bore most of that responsibility, and even moved across the street with Jim and the boys, and helped finish raising Bobby Judy and dd. I just took off, without fanfare or drama, and bam, suddenly
I often remember having no food, a busted hot water heater, no electricity, picking up pop bottles for laundry money.....and that we managed to make its FUN. I can feel the fun happening in that pix of us all, and dd and I are holding hands.
Dad bought the vw bus, he and I took a road trip in it, up to a farm in Oklahoma. He left it with mom, not paid for. Same with the house. Mom chose the biggest house at the top of the hill.
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