Allen's end-of-the year shopping included buying me a new car. He replaced my white Navigator with a fancy new wine/red Navigator with all sorts of bells & whistles. Tuesday when he drove the old car away from the house for the last time I was sad. My friend, Jan called it my Land Yacht; I named it Harriet's Chariot. She was a part of the family for more than five years, the main vehicle for carrying all our camping stuff to North Carolina or the cold springs state parks in Florida. She carried heaps of school children on field trips; she was my mode of transportation on occasional "just me" road trips. I felt like I was losing a best friend when Allen drove her away for the last time. Harriet's Chariot.
Perhaps affection for pets rises from the same source, placing names upon them. Allen has always loved cats, but I never wanted one because I did not want cats in the house. I knew it was too easy for an outside cat to move into the house and find welcome in the lap of my husband. We had cats when we lived in Lori Lane, but they stayed outside. After moving here Neuencat was allowed in permanently because the noise from the big road frightened her. Neuencat was named for our friend, Wayne Neuenschwander as sort of a joke because he is not particularly fond of cats and thinks they are good cats as long as they are doing some sort of work such as killing rats in the barn or some other primitive activity. Since it was a female cat could not call her Wayne so we took part of his last name and made a new name for the lovely calico cat, Neuencat. All of our cats have had the name "cat" in them: Mama-cat, Fat-cat, etc. When Neuencat sickened and died we had a funeral in the back yard. Jacqueline cried. We were sad. Perhaps our affection arose from placing a name upon her. She became a member of our family.
Far more important name-placing comes with the arrival of a new baby. Many couples now-a-days do not reveal the name of their baby till after the birth. Cammie & Chris did not do that, but early on they decided to name the baby after their grandmothers and so she is called Maggie Iris. I love her name! Before she was born we would talk to her through the wall of her mama's belly and rub her feet as she pushed against the wall of her cozy growing pouch. "Maggie, come out and play!" I would call to her. After she was born we called her Maggie, not Baby Copen or some anonymous name. She was ours, immediately part of the family. We loved her from the first time we laid eyes on her. We had placed our name upon her.
