Daytripping May-June 2021 Issue

Lake Huron
MI
ONTARIO
NY
You can start anywhere you like of course, plan your own trip and stay overnight!
What’s in
a Name?
By Dot Sale, Belmont
Do you remember being a child and
having to deal with being called a name
you were born with, but didn’t really
like?
My mother used to tell me that her
maiden name was Rose Pridmore Hill
and her older sister Dorothy used to
tease her about it. I didn’t discover
where the Pridmore name came from
until I got into doing family genealogy
and learned that Pridmore was a last
name on her father’s mother’s side
of the family. My mother told me that
she used to retaliate against her sister
because her middle name was Gladys
by calling her Dorothy Glad ass. I had
the misfortune of inheriting her sister’s
name as I was about to be born when
her sister was dying of tuberculosis, and
my mother would get TB as well, but
thankfully she would survive it and live
another 18 years before passing away.
Growing up with my Scottish
grandmother while my mother was in
a TB sanitarium, I would quickly learn
how she pronounced Dorothy when I
was downstairs and she wanted me to
come upstairs for one reason or another.
Let’s just say she could definitely roll
that “r” when she needed to.
As I got to be a teenager I learned
I wasn’t the only one with name
challenges. When we had to line up
in school for needles for one thing or
another, the teacher called out our
names with enthusiasm. We knew one
girl as Lynn and were surprised to find
out that her real name was actually
Marilyn. I would later do the same thing
when I had the chance to change my
name from Dorothy to anything else.
There was a neighbour next to us who
was named Dorothy too, but preferred
being called Dolly like Dolly Parton.
I thought about it and decided that I
wasn’t a Dolly kind of person, much as I
love Dolly Parton myself. It wasn’t until
my family and I moved to Belmont in
1993 that I finally got the chance to give
myself a new nickname—Dot, about the
same time I started writing short stories
under my initials, D.A. Sale and tried
to get them successfully published, but
without success except by self-printing
several copies of them for friends.
Now that I’m retired in more ways
than one, I think about what my mother
would say about all my literary efforts. I
know I inherited my writing talent from
her, but I sadly never got to see any of
her work as her father had a crazy idea
that women shouldn’t be writers even
though several of the greatest women
writers including Agatha Christie came
from his own country. I’m definitely sure
my mother would be pleased, though,
along with several other members of
my family, and that’s all that counts.
Editor’s Note: One of my most favourite
people in the world is named Dorothy, and
we lovingly call her Gramma Dottie. Thank
you, Dot, for all of your contributions to
Daytripping!
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May-June 2021 “Mother’s love is peace. It need not be acquired nor deserved.” (Erich Fromm)
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