What's In A Name?

Apparently, a lot of enjoyment!

Did you know that we all like to hear someone say our name? I've read several studies that say it's true. Somebody years ago found a way to capitalize on this. And since we're heading into "birthday month" around here (three of my four offspring were born in May; no jokes please about the August celebrations: I think we've heard them all and if not, I'm not interested in the rest) it seemed like the perfect time to give CAPTAIN ZOOM some free advertising.

Our first encounter with this birthday-greeting-singing-spaceman was when Karen was two years old. That's when a church friend gave her a copy as a gift. We've taken very good care of it these last 28 years. Um, was I allowed to say that? I guess it's safe since she's advertising on her own blog that her 30th birthday is approaching. Funny how one's kids can pass up the mother in age. :)

Well, of course, when Lisa came along a few years later (and not in May!) we just had to find one of these little personalized plastic records for her. We found a rack of them at Toys 'R Us. This was pre-Internet. Oops! Am I allowed to make my grown kids sound ancient? Sorry!

All was fine until the Princess came along several years later.  We just had to have one for her so we got in the car, drove to Nashville to the closest Toys 'R Us, and bought . . . nothing. They had stopped carrying them. Boy were we the bad guys for years to come! Try explaining to your third child that you can't buy that super-duper personalized birthday song like her older sisters have. That child just knows it is a conspiracy against her and that it is somehow your fault!

Okay, I'm kidding a little. Or maybe the Princess has gotten over it by now. Or maybe she finally realized we did the best we could and bought her a long (and boring) substitute from a mall kiosk because it was the best we could do at the time. Whatever.

Or maybe Al Gore finally invented the Internet and we discovered that the song could be bought in a new-and-improved CD-R version!

Okay, it took awhile to find this (actually, we were grandparents by the time we did) so we were able to order one for each: Princess, The Bear, and Polly. The names are covered in the picture since our two youngest kids aren't named, um, Princess and The Bear. Polly's copy is unavailable to be photographed because it is at her house.

Princess and The Bear do not have names that are totally out of the ordinary. In fact, as much as I love, love, love their names I would not say that I am exactly creative when it comes to naming my children. Their names on the CDs sound normal because they were probably covered by the original batch of recordings. Polly's real name is not "different" but it was not a popular name back in 1976, the year this song was copywritten, so the name dubbing is a bit obvious. It's okay, but obvious.

Okay, now assume . . . just assume . . . that Polly doesn't remain our only grandchild. (She didn't.) Assume, in fact, that she has three younger sisters and a cousin. (All true.) And now assume that a couple of these younger ones wonder why they don't have Captain Zoom birthday songs of their own.

As a further assumption, assume that one of the granddaughters has an unusual name. (She does.) Well, for a small fee Captain Zoom will make her a personalized song. All it takes (besides a few extra bucks) is the proper spelling and phonetic pronunciation on the order form. I did this! And just to make sure that he was pronouncing the name correctly Captain Zoom called me on the phone one morning. What a guy!!!!!

A few days later I received my order. I was very pleased with the new digitized edition of the specially ordered name!

As you can see, we're big fans of Captain Zoom and his birthday greetings. They also do personalized wedding and anniversary songs and have branched out into DVD products. If you know someone who would enjoy a personalized gift visit their on-line shop here. And tell them "Gram*" sent you!

* Speaking of names, did you notice that I changed mine again? Well, my blog name, anyway.

When I began blogging I used "Karabeth" because that is our homeschool name. Then so many people starting assuming that this was my given first name that I had to clarify it.

So I changed to the full name of "Karabeth Baptist Homeschool." The problem became that I do not limit my Internet participation to strictly homeschool blogs and posts consequently some of the blogs where I leave comments either delete them or rewrite and post my comments under the "Anonymous" heading.

Therefore, I have chosen to be called "Gram in the blogosphere. It is what my grandkids call me and is generic enough to fit any situation.

I'm sorry for the confusion. I'm really not having an identity crisis anywhere else.