One of the words in the title of this blog seems to surprise people. I had no idea how many different meanings the word "Punkie" might have! But according to a good friend, it can mean any of "young, inexperienced person" as well as "prostitute (archaic); in poor health; decayed, crumbly wood; dry, spongy substance prepared from fungi." Those meanings, while fascinating, aren't quite what we had in mind :-) The name comes from an essential part of my relationship with your dad: silliness! We almost never call our dog by his name. This may be because we didn't choose the name, and I, at least, don't really like it. Instead, we call him by any of a large number of pet names that we have constructed in moments of his cuteness or his sociopathy - depending on the day.
On days when Rex is climbing the counter and eating out of the pizza box, after a chorus of "No! Stop! It's unconscionable! It's wrong!" and once his four paws are restored to the ground where they belong, I usually punctuate the event by calling him "Punk!" Then there are most days, when our canine child is his perfectly adorable self, and I call him "Punkin" (a southern pronunciation derived from the English word "pumpkin,") and even "punkin butt" or "punkin head." From this came the shorter "Punkie," and "punkie head." Now that explains how we got the word Punkie, but definately not how we got to be a punkie family.
For this I must refer to a very, very long car trip that your dad and I took from our home in Chapel Hill, NC to our parents respective homes in Bishopville, SC then Macon, GA, and then on to visit our cousins in Wisconsin. Such car rides make us punchy, and when we are punchy we make up songs. Your dad is much better at this than I am. He can make them up on the spot, and they always make sense musically, rhythmically, and usually, they even rhyme. I, however, made up this song. In this song, I sang random pitches which didn't go together in the slightest, and it goes "PunkieRexie, Punkie Bootie (less vulgar and fit better rhythmically than "punkie butt"), Punkie Husband, Punkie Wife." People who hear our song (which delights us immeasurably) roll their eyes and really can't believe we wer'e adults. We sing it all the time. Now, as we grow more accustomed to our new role as parents, the song has morphed into "PunkieMommie, PunkiePapa, PunkieRexie, PunkieSon."
In naming our blog we thought we'd choose something that pointed out that we are pretty darned happy people and don't take ourselves too seriously. Punkie, yeah? So, our family identity - in flux as it may be - is best summed up by this song. We are a PunkieFamily.
2 comments:
I would like to say that I am totally supportive of your identity as a 'punkie family' but I really think that PunkiePapa would be a great name for a grandfather. How do you think Dad would feel about PunkiePa?
Can't tell. He and Mom are really unsure about what they want to be called. PunkiePapa's parents have decided: they are "Lolly" and "Big G" - the logic eludes me, but there they are :-)
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