All rights
reserved and with apologies to Willie Shakespeare and Southern Moms everywhere
For over 65 years I have been known as Jody,
the nickname I was given in the first grade, the name on my book “Kin We’re Not
Related To”, the name on this blog, and the name I am known by to all of my
friends and professional colleagues.
Name
problems seem to have started when I married.
My husband had six brothers and sisters which, over the years, netted four “Mrs. Worshams”. During holidays when all the daughter-in-laws
were home, you could not call their home and ask for “Mrs. Worsham”. If you did, four different women might come
to the phone or no one, each thinking the call was for the other one. Mostly “Mrs.”
referred to the elder mother/mother-in-law. It did not get much better with the Raymonds
either. There was Raymond the father-in-law,
Raymond the son-in-law, Raymond the nephew, and Raymond my husband. Hence you
always had to call a Raymond by both his first name and his middle name in
order to get the correct Raymond’s attention, well except for Raymond the
father-in-law. I don’t think he had a
middle name but since he was the first Raymond and the only one without a
middle name, everyone knew the Raymond you were referring to if you just asked
for Raymond.
Then for
almost 40 years, I was Worsham to my students. They used Worsham in the same
way athletes used "coach." It was faster for my students to get a response with “Worsham,
fire” or “Worsham, light falling” or “Worsham, principal coming!” (I was a very
creative and unconventional theatre arts teacher who made principals very nervous) then to call me “Mrs.”
Worsham and wait for me to process that “Mrs.” was referring to me. But then my
husband was also a teacher and his students referred to him as “Worsham” as
well. His brother, too, was a teacher
and his students called him “Worsham”. Over
the years, any educational convention would find students and former students
having to qualify which “Worsham” they were referencing.
Jody and
Worsham served me for 50 years except for the choir teacher, who called me by
my official name, Jo, and my mother, who insists on calling me by both my first name and the middle name she put
on my birth certificate. When I needed a
passport, official birth name only was required. Doctors began using computers and social
security numbers for identification and part of my prescriptions are under Jody
and part are under Jo. I am afraid to
buy Sudafed at the pharmacy for fear it will look like two people trying to buy
the decongestant at the same time using the same social security number and a
driver’s license that that did not have Jody on it
The name
problems have followed me into decade number 7.
My nine-year-old and my thirteen-year-old go to a small rural school
where all the students say “yes, mam” and “no, mam”. Those that don't are probably transfers. As a
substitute teacher it is refreshing to hear "yes, mam" and "no, mam".
I did notice that when I would
work in the concession stand for Little Dribblers, I was always referred to as “Mrs. Worsham” even
though all the other mothers and dads with nine-year-olds had
first names. In Parent Teacher
Organization meetings again everyone had a first name except me. Finally I said to the other parents in the
PTO (by way of Facebook of course):
“Ok, why is it that everybody has a first name
like Susan or Kathryn, or Holly, and mine is “Mrs.?” I move that I be called Jody or Jo or Worsham. Or I’ll even take a new first name like Betty
or Tammy. I’ll take a double name Mable
Rae or Ethel Mae. I may be twice your
age…ok three times your age but with a nine-year-old, I forget how old I am. You have my permission to forget it to.”
Of course
one of the parents is a former student of mine.
She had trouble calling me Worsham even as a teenager but she promised
to try “Jo .” I could tell at the slight
hesitation before “Jo” that she expected her Mama to pop her on the head any
minute for being disrespectful to a teacher and the elderly.
I guess I
will just have to answer to anything.
At my age people will just say “SORRY, MRS.
WORSHAM. I WAS HOLLERING FOR MINNIE LOU.”
