June 16, 2005

All in a Name

During lunch the other day, the ladies and I swapped stories from our Southern childhoods.

My children’s paternal grandmother grew up in northeast Louisiana, right along the Mississippi River not far from Vicksburg, Mississippi. Her father was a farmer on some prime delta farm land where the Mississippi once flowed, but had long since abandoned its path.

One of the ladies with whom she grew up also came from a farm family. When her father died, in addition to the land, sheds, and well-patched equipment, she inherited the loyal family work hand, an elderly man known as Bominitious (pronounced just as I attempted to spell it: Bo-mi-ni-tious). Bominitious had been a fixture on this farm since before this lady was born in the mid-to-late 1930’s.

One Friday afternoon, Bominitious came by the main house to collect his week’s wages. The lady apologized to him and told him she had not been able to go by the bank and pick up cash and asked if she could write him a check. Bominitious was a kind and gentle man, he smiled and told her a check would be fine with him.

The lady started to write the check, then stopped and asked him how he spelled his name.

Very slowly, he replied: “R. J. Jackson.”

A bit shocked, the lady wrote out the check as instructed and handed it to him. Before he could turn to leave, she asked him: “If your name is R. J. Jackson, why have we always called you Bominitious?”

He smiled and explained: “I was fifteen when I first came around here asking your daddy for work. Your daddy asked me right off what I go by. I told him I go by my initials.”

Posted by Christina at June 16, 2005 12:28 PM

Comments

Ahh!!! LMAO! I'm calling my daddy to tell him that one!

Posted by: Oddybobo at June 16, 2005 03:07 PM

I do stuff like that all the time. It's not even related to accents, either...well, sometimes it is but not always. Usually it's just my hearing. It's funny, I think. Sometimes I'll hear something TOTALLY different than what was actually said. And since my hearing loss is hereditary, it makes for some weird conversations at family reunions.

Great story!

Posted by: zonker at June 16, 2005 04:28 PM

For true, as we used to say in New Orleans? If so, that is hysterical.

Posted by: RP at June 16, 2005 04:56 PM

bwa ha ha haaaa!

Posted by: amelie at June 16, 2005 05:03 PM

That's a true Southern story ifn I ever heard one.

Thanks for the laugh.

Posted by: Madame Butterfly at June 16, 2005 11:46 PM

THAT is a fabulous story!

I was laughing like crazy. I, too, come from a family where hearing loss is hereditary. So, now when I didn't quite hear something that was said, I query, "Your WHAT hurts?"

Not that gives 'em pause.

Posted by: Phoenix at June 17, 2005 11:34 AM

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