Who Am I, Really
I thought I'd start off 2010 with an explanation of my name, or names. Folks know me by different monikers and that can confuse some. So, here goes.
I was born and named after my grandfather. Kazimierz. I have a birth certificate somewhere attesting to that, although I can't read it because it's in German. (Well, I guess I can figure out the relevant parts.)
I grew up in Worcester in the Vernon Hill area. I was, up till about five, completely immersed in Polish. That was the language I understood. Then, I was released into the wild meeting English speaking kids and my transformation to Polish-English and English-Polish began. I think it took 20 minutes. Maybe less. I can't be sure. Seriously, I have no recollection of struggling with language back then. Kids just figure stuff out so magnificently at that age. (I envy that.)
But, the name think, well, that was a problem. Most kids got it by calling me Kaz. (Which, in today's day and age is a neat sounding name...back then, though.) The bad memory I have is walking down the street and having some kids yell out "Hey, Cashmere Bouquet". If you know what Casmere Bouquet is, and you're a boy, you just don't want anyone calling you that. So, I was always envious of my American friends who, Polish or not or whatever, had American sounding names (like Steve, or Paul, or Georgie, or Ray.)
We moved to the lower part of Vernon Hill and took up residence in a nice home (three decker, of course) and the nice woman who lived on the 2nd floor took up calling me Charlie. She said that's what Kaz was in American. Well, it never fit with me. When I told my friends they did the equivalent of, "Yeah, right", which, back then, as an expression, hadn't been invented yet. So, they still called me Kaz. In fact, in school (I went to a nice, Polish-American school called St. Mary's.), everybody called me Kaz. I had, finally, outgrown the Cashmere Bouquet thing.
Then, in high school (which was still St. Mary's, by the way), in my 2nd year, I was renamed. I never realized how difficult it must have been for the kids to call me Kaz. (Hey, I was used to it, why weren't they.) We had just gotten a new priest in the parish whose name was the same as mine. I didn't know this, but found out quickly on my first day of school that year. Our Biology teacher was reading off attendance and when she looked at me, she read my name and said, "Oh, you're Casey!"
Overnight...and I really mean overnight...the entire school started calling me Casey. Kaz became Casey so automagically that I was stunned. Even the classmates in my very own grade, who I'd known for so many years, changed from Kaz to Casey. It was only my closest friends and family members who stuck with Kaz. Weird. Fun.
Why Casey? Well, it turns out, Father Casey was a very popular kind of guy...and he was a priest, too. Not one to be feared or suspicious of, but just a nice guy kind of guy-priest. Is name was actually Father Kazimierz, but somehow in his lifetime, the really cool "Casey" came out of that. So, the name then stuck with me.
I met my wife in grammer school, was crazy about her at first sight, and years later in high school, she noticed me. She's called me Casey for as long as I can remember.
Somewhere in the middle of all of this, we had our Confirmation. That's a religious event (it's a Catholic Sacrament kind of thing) where you get to pick a new name. I had no middle name given to me by my parents and I started thinking about what name I'd like. There was a guy in school with us named Richard Domian. I always liked how that name sounded. (Then there was Richard The Lionhearted, which was pretty cool, too.) So, I chose Richard as my Confirmation name.
When I turned 18, I decided to become an American Citizen. I was a DP before that. (Displaced Person, Dumb Pollack to some stupid people, probably the same ones that called me Cashmere Bouquet.) I went through the process and when it came time to filling out the paperwork, on a whim, I switched my First and Confirmation names. I became Richard Casimir Danek. (Casimir? ...well, that's how Kazimierz is spelled in America, I guess.)
In retrospect, I should have gone with Casey.
But, that's water of the dam. (Or is is damned...hmmm.)
Enter the workplace. I'm now a Richard. Proud as a Lionhearted king and still having most people call me Casey. Life was good. About that time, Tom Selleck started advertizing Chaz cologn. It became a popular commercial series because, well, he's a pretty good looking guy. Suddenly, Chaz was cool. It sounded a lot like Kaz. Might Kaz have been cool? Hmmm. Then, on All In The Family - that sitcom in the 60's that made Archie Bunker and Mike Stivic the funniest protagonist-antagonist pair in the world - Mike's Uncle Kaz comes into being. He's a big, burly guy that doesn't take crap from Archie (or anyone, really). He was cool. So, now Chaz and/or Kaz was becoming cool. Damn.
Well, I was Richard and that was cool, too. Except...
Richard M. Nixon
...OK, we now have a new name. Tricky Dick. Our president and his actions made Trick Dick somewhat the replacement name for anyone named Richard. Ouch. In the workplace, I was simply known as Dick. (I think the Cashmere Bouquet name callers were still calling me Tricky Dick, but they were few and far between...perhaps maturity was kicking in, finally.)
Here's a recap. I started of as Kazimierz, Kochie (my mom called me that, nevermind), Kaz, Casey, Richard, Tricky Dick, and finally Dick. Man, what an identity crisis.
Some 40 years later, I can safely say that I'm mostly Casey. I introduce myself that way, although legally, it has to be Richard.
What's funny is that, over all the years, folks who first met me at different times took to calling me by one name and it kind of sticks. My early friends and all my family call me Kaz. My later friends, and my lovely wife, call me Casey. Folks I met at various stages of work life call me Dick. (Why didn't Richard ever stick? ...what's up with that, Richard Domian? ...how did you do it?) Tricky Dick died with the Cashmere Bouquet crowd.
Sometimes, I have to be careful cashing checks. People will make them out to Casey Danek and, really, that's not my legal name. It's actually Richard Casimir Danek. That's what it says on my Citizenship Papers (a legal document that proves I'm a U.S. Citizen).
What's the old saying? "I don't care what you call me as long as you call me?"
Just don't call me Cashmere Bouquet.
2 comments:
From my perspective, of the three names our parent's chose for us, Kazimierz was the best. For the oldest of the three boys our parent's raised, the name "Ignatsy" (This is how our parent's pronounced our dear late brother's name) always sounded to me too much like the word "Nazi" - not cool at all. He Americanized the pronunciation as much as he could to the much cooler "Ignacy (Rhymes with Macy), but all who really knew him used the nickname "Iggy" which is very cool indeed.
Like you, I never much liked my own name, either in its American or Polish pronunciation: Arthur/Artur. The eventual nicknames of Artie and Art became somewhat tolerable for me. I suppose I would have also initially hated the name Kaz as you did if it were mine, but I always did like it and continue to use it as often as I do "Casey".
When it came time to name my first born, I decided on a name that was not too common but also not one that could easily be "Cashmere Boqueted". What's the worst you could do with Steven? All I could come up with is Even-Steven, and that ain't half bad.
The postcript that needs to be added to this entire story, however, is that of how your granddaughter was given her name! That I'm leaving up to either you or Jen.
Art
Jen reminded me that Kaycie was named after the Casey me. And I absolutely love that. Of course, she wanted her own, special spelling of it and Casey became Kaycie. That, too, is very cool.
I can't tell you how often someone will come into a room when we're all together and say, "Hi Kaycie" or ask Kaycie a question and, because they are pronounced the same, I will answer. This will only get better as time goes on...and more fun.
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