Your Mom and I went down to Fireside yesterday to see the play “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers”. You have to be 70 years old to attend the Fireside.
In the play, the brothers were given names starting with the letter A followed by B (and so on) through the alphabet. Obviously with seven brothers you only get to the letter G (Gideon). I don’t know what happens if you have 27 kids? It got me to thinking. If your Mom and had used the order of the alphabet to name you Grasshoppers, what would the names have looked like?
Grasshopper No.1 would have been an “A” instead of “D”. You could have been an Abby, Anna or an Abigal. Or you could have picked up family names like Alice or Addie. I personally like Alex.
Grasshopper No.2 would have been a “B” instead of “K”. That could have resulted in Bambi, Briget, Becky or Bethany. Lots of choices. Hmmm? I think I like Barb.
Grasshopper No.3 we got right. We needed a “C”. We got a “C”. How about Chester, Clifford or Casper? There was the possibility of Charles. No Way!
Grasshopper No.4 would have been a “D” instead of a “P”. I’d like to digress to silly names like Dopey, Dexter and Dunce but that wouldn’t be fair. We would have considered Doug, David or Daniel. Fate might have led us the the name Dominic. Hmmmm!
Lastly is the maverick in Minneapolis. She got the big “M” but the system would have required an “E”. Grasshopper No.5 could have been Edwina, Elise, Emily or Emma. Personally I like Emma. Her middle name is Elizabeth so we could have reversed her first and middle names.
Of course the 6th child would have had a name starting with “F”. “F” is appropriate because when news of the impending birth got out the exclamation would have been “awe f—” (get you mind out of the gutter, the word is fudge”. You decide what “F” would have been.
Actually I like the random system we used. Otherwise you Grasshoppers would have been Alex, Barb, Cliff, Doug and Emma. It just wouldn’t seem right!
Love,
Dad