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My paternal Grandmother (“Grossmummy”, for those who know her) was an Amish woman who bore seven children during the difficult years of the Great Depression.
It was my privilege to read her diary/notebook for the year 1932. Grossmummy preferred speaking Pennsylvania Dutch (my loss), but wrote in English, as that was the language of commerce, and most of the “diary” is actually more of a farm journal, telling about the various projects they had going on the farm and elsewhere to try and make ends meet.
The Journal was for the year 1932. My Dad was born in 1931, the sixth of what would be seven children (the two oldest boys – Alvin and Raymond, whom I never met -- had not yet died).
The Journal covered the time from when my Dad was 3 months old, to when he was 15 months old. Most of it tells of the day to day happenings of the farm, lots of details, including prices of wheat and corn and tomatoes etc. Lots of people are mentioned, which children did what, who visited, etc.
At no point does she mention my Dad by name. She only refers to him as “the baby.” She mentions all the other children and numerous other relatives, but there is no “Freddy”, only “the baby.”
Maybe I am reading too much into it, but it does make me wonder what that means. Why would a pre-vaccination, depression era woman not refer to her baby by name?
Maybe it was simply that there were too many of them. :) I have only four, and find myself going through a list of names before I get to the actual name of my fourth child.
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4 comments:
I remember when Lucy was born we called her Lucy but we often called her the baby too. But yeah that could make sense w/ depression and all.
Kellie
I would just see it as an affectionate term...and maybe quicker and easier than "going through the list" to get to that 6th child's name. ?
There may be something in your wondering. Perhaps a child had to grow into his name as he did into long pants, and he had to survive long enough to achieve those milestones. I suppose another baby bumped a child into namehood.
Or maybe the affectionate nickname is correct. In the South it wasn't (isn't) uncommon that children are Brother and Sister--Bubba and Sissy, the easy sweet names for a baby to call the other sibs.
If it was common for other families to do the same as your family, I don't suppose people really knew what was at the heart of the nickname. At least, if it was holding loosely, I don't suppose a Mother would bluntly name that factor, or even let herself recognize it.
This could be a good example of not knowing why we assume, accept, and do things that are culturally common.
Noel
I was born in Feb. 1941.
In Mother's diary of that year, she mentions a baby girl being born. No name.
Afterwards I'm also referred to as the "baby".
Did you know my dad wanted to name me Thelma? Mother wrote a card to Grandma telling her a baby was born and they named her Lydia, which was my grandmothers name. My dad erased Lydia and wrote in Thelma instead.
When Granndmother received the note she asked, "What is it, a boy or a girl?" :)
mtmama
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