Treasure that. Write it into something. It's cool.
I had a never-married very un-feminine-in-the-era-sense great-aunt
who, we are pretty sure, was a spy for the OSS in the lead up to
WWII. She always denied it ("I was a secretary, not a spook"), but
after she died I was going through her desk and came upon a stack of
her old passports and INSTANTLY went to the relevant years, and guess
what? She was in and out of Germany over a dozen times between '36-
'40. My biggest regret is I didn't pocket the damn passports--no one
would have cared and I'm sure they were pitched. But I was young and
felt constrained by the "rules" for surveying the house after she
died. I didn't understand that the rules applied to things of
marketable value. Dammit.
I have few regrets in my life that don't pertain to personal
opportunities missed, and this looms large.
--- In [email protected], "Kate Jones"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> --- In [email protected], "Elizabeth Collins"
> <ecolins@> wrote:
> >
> > Maybe he didn't like the name Herman. My great grandmother was
> named Agnes, but hated it. By the
> > time I came around, everyone called her Grandma Joe. Her second
> husband was named Joe and we
> > called him Grandpa Joe. Even my mother and grandmother used these
> nicknames, so I'm not sure who
> > originated them, or when. I don't remember how old I was when I
> figured out that her name was not
> > Joe, and that Joe was a first name rather than a last name.
> >
>
> My great-great grandmother was named "Josehpine," detested her
name,
> and refused to answer to "Jo," so the family called her "Phenie"
> (rhymes with "teeny"). She said "if you love your daughters, don't
> name them after me!"
>
> She was quite a character. At 80 she fell over a footstool and
> insisted that the family tell everyone that she got it in a beer
> brawl because she didn't want people to think that she was a little
> old lady who falls over footstools.
>
> She also raised my grandmother, who learned early in her dating
years
> to be ready when her date showed up. If she wasn't Phenie would
play
> craps with the young man in question and take all his money. (My
> brother swears the dice were loaded and round with wear, but I
doubt
> he ever saw them.) If Phenie didn't like my grandmother's suitor,
> she wouldn't give him his money back.
>
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