Before I continue with the here-and-now adventures of April’s cornbread odyssey, I really ought to do the decent thing and answer the question I am most often asked, which is "Is that your real name?"
Okay, that’s done.
Having a weird name (by choice, no less, even though I was too young to have 
any idea what I was doing to myself, and forever) is like having a tattoo of a red tarantula wearing sunglasses in the middle of your forehead. You might forget it’s on your forehead, but until they know you so well that they fail to notice it, it’s all other people see. Now imagine you got the tarantula with shades when you were twelve, and you’re now collecting Social Security and explaining, at the Senior Center, for the twelve zillionth time that, oh, you were just a kid, you really liked sunglasses and thought it would be a goof (to the extent you thought about it at all), and you never imagined you’d live until your nineties …
I can’t blame anyone for asking, and it’s nobody’s fault but mine, as the old Blind Willie Johnson song goes (Please note: these links are to two astonishing archival videos, far more substantial than this lightweight weird name stuff: in the first, Pops Staples does a version of the song, in the second, it’s Blind Willie Johnson himself, singing another of his songs, on his front porch. The second one… I’d be willing to bet it was filmed on celluloid, in the 30’s or 40’s, and probably recorded by one of those folk musicologist like Alan Lomax. Blues lovers, don’t miss these).
But still. Back to the name: explaining gets old.
Now it’s true that lately some people have called my silly name cool; in one kind post on Anne’s Food and response it even got tagged, "improbable" and in someone’s reply, "brilliant." (!) This is certainly better than what "What, you took too many drugs in the ’60’s?" or (more innocently and somewhat flatteringly, given my age), "I guess your parents must’ve been hippies?"
It is also true that I got contacted (charmingly) some years back by a bunch of over-educated twisted folks who despite their advanced degrees evidently have nothing better to do with their time than create and maintain a site, admittedly amusing (unless it’s your name) called Name of the Year, which I "won" in 1993, and which was evidently so popular that NOTY’s annual play-offs are now titled the Dragonwagon Regionals. However, come on… does one really want to be in the company of "the likes of
Anicet Lavodrama, Unique Wigfall, Babypaz de la Vega Jr., Drs. Jihad
Slim and Barney Softness, Gay Straite, Courage Shabalala, Dick Trickle,
Dudley Softly, Finesse Couch, La’keisha Laughinghouse, Attila Cosby,
Maximum Havoc Steinberg, Dudu Chili, Asi Wind, Shula Hula"?
Well, a little late to consider that now, Crescent.
For what it’s worth, I took a writing workshop taught by Elayne Clift a couple of months back. In one exercise, everyone was asked to rename themselves, give themselves a name that was another, could-have-been self, and write as that person.
All around me, women were writing as WindEagle, Cinnamon, Calliope, Thrive, Juicy Crone.
For what it’s worth, I chose, and wrote as, Jane.
Sleek, pared down, in no way calling attention to itself.
But I do like my logo, above. As you can tell by what the dragon’s working on, it dates to pre-computer days.
Now: are we done on the name topic?
Pleased to meet you. My name is Elizabeth Barrette. I like having an unusual name; it suits me. I once met someone named James Bond, too.
A friend of mine tipped me to your cornbread cookbook, so I’m keeping an eye out for it.
Thank you, Elizabeth. I am so happy to meet you, too! All the more so because, as you know, this is my first venture into blogging and I am tickled to have been introduced through it to my *first* cyber-pal whom I didn’t know previously… that would be you!
Let me know if you enjoy the cornbread book. You can find some of the recipes at http://www.cornbreadgospels.com and I’ll whomp some up here, too, eventually.
Hello –
It’s a pleasure to read your first posts. You’ve been a name in my life for as long as I can remember, thanks to my uncle Bill at HAM, but I’m fairly certain we’ve never met. I never lived in Arkansas, although the rest of my father’s family does.
I love how small the world is, with Suzette Haden Elgin’s blog to direct me to yours, and then to find mention of another familiar person (Starr) within your posts.
Shana Worthen
This is so sweet! The minute I saw “Worthen” I wondered… Your cousin (Uncle Bill’s daughter; I’m blanking on her name this second but I can see her in my mind’s — WAIT! Rachel!) spent her 16th birthday at Dairy Hollow House, the inn in Eureka Springs Ned and I used to own… I believe that was also the night Bill helped me rescue some stranded baby raccoons from the ceiling of our old house… But that’s another story/series of stories. Get Bill to tell you. Anyway, welcome!
Greetings!
Nice to meet another ‘original name’. I, like you, chose my name. Actually, my elders chose it for me, I just adopted it legally at the end of a rather nasty divorce where I didn’t want him to be able to find me. I get everything from, “your parents must have done a lot of drugs in the 60s,” to “is that some kind of Indian name,” to “wow, I was expecting a guy.” Occasionally someone thinks it is neat; but then it usually takes me several minutes of explaining how I acquired it and how to spell it!
Did you know (according to what I was told at the Social Security office), that it is illegal for someone in the US to have a surname that uses two words? Technically my last name is Rainbow Wolf, but I am not allowed to use it; I have to use Rainbow as my middle name.
Anyway, it is a pleasure to ‘meet’ you. I’ve had “The Cornbread Gospels” on my wish list for some time now, and look forward to delving into it in the proverbial soon.
I have always liked your name and more importantly for many years your bread and soup cookbook has been in constant use in our home and when the children were small This Is the Bread…was also a favorite (and sometimes, even though they’re 9 and 13 now..we still read it!).
The Cornbread Gospels is wonderful and I plan to use it extensively when we’re on the Cape this summer. It was anguish to have the book arrive during Passover and have to wait a week before I could try a recipe!!
Blogging is always fun-enjoy!
Charlie, you are a woman who runs with the wolves! I have never heard about the you-can’t-have-two-word last name thing and am mystified; maybe someone at the SS office was having a bad day. What about folks born with two-word names: Townsend or Wallwood (just opened my phone book and there they were)? And Native American names, as you mention?
Amy Sue, I am delighted that you like my name as well as CBG, and since I love Cape Cod, it makes me happy to think of it being used this summer… Passover: hmm, I wonder if there were Kosher masa harina if one could make tortillas, which are after all unleavened? BTW, as you (or anyone else reading this)find enjoyable or interesting recipes or thought processes or asides, please feel free to write a review on amazon. I have no idea how or if reader reviews affect sales – I just know that for myself, I skip over the professional reviewers and go straight to what the readers say, so I figure others may do the same. Lastly, I’m happy you enjoy my goofy name and are getting good use from Dairy Hollow House Soup & Bread. It’s odd… the circumstances of my life are so wholly different from what they were when I wrote it, yet the recipes remain solid (as well as I think my underlying feeling about food). Interesting what changes and what falls away, isn’t it?
I was thrilled to see you have started a blog. I have two of your wonderful cookbooks, and am going to go out and look for your newest. Soup and Bread is one of my favorite cookbooks of all time. I use its vegetable “the soup” recipe all winter long.
Thanks, wendelah. I still make “the soup” often often often myself. Glad you like it, the book, and the blog! CD
So glad you stuck with Crescent. I’d never have rediscovered you if you’d changed your name. And what a pleasure it is.