Ahhhhhhhh, the choosing of the name. One does not know how different they are from their spouse until one is choosing a name with their spouse. And then there are personalities to consider. For instance, I should never have a Victoria... lest any expectations of the secret or posh spice kind come into play. Bless our offsprings heart, they are going to have some fabulous qualities but top tier fashionista is most likely not in the mix... unless denim, converse, and old soccer t-shirts grow wildly popular in vogue. So, the story, here's how it all began.
(just a little pic to pass your time)
Growing up, most of my weekends beginning at age 7 were filled with traveling to soccer games. Due to the league that Emily and I were in, our games were all over not only the state of Georgia, but also the South East. They stretched from Florida to Virginia and Georgia to Texas. Normally the games weren't more than a few hours away but even with those, the accumulated time amounted to... let me quickly do the math (insert calculator typing noises)... a LOT of time in the car. When we were U8-U10, we mostly passed the time with Bob Carlisle, Rich Mullins, and Chris Rice. But the older we got, the more secular music was slowly introduced. At first, it was Gram Parsons, then some Emmylou Harris, a hardy chunk of Kris Kristopherson, and a giant amount of Alabama. Dad had a big ol' cd holder book that was jammed packed full of goodies. I remember when we we'd start those trips on Saturday mornings: a left out of Quinn Ridge and almost an immediate left pulling into circle K where he would sometimes fill up on gas but ALWAYS grab either a mountain dew and boiled peanuts or a banana bread slice and some strawberry nesquik (depending on what time of the day it was. I too was allowed a snack and drink and almost always went for the favored banana bread. Then when he checked out, I would rummage through the candy and gum racks underneath the register counter and almost always find loose and forgotten change. Back to the car we went but before the engine was ever started, he would reach back behind to the back seat and pull out his cd case. I would secretly try to guess which disc he would choose and hold my breath as he flipped through and either passed it, or on the extremely rare occasion, grab it. Sometimes I would ask who we were going to listen to and then try and guess which cd he would start with.Dad loved to sing along to the songs. When one he really really loved would come on, which was most of them, he would turn he volume up and start flicking his fingers in a maestro like manner in preparation for the first verse to start. Then he would almost always start singing a measure too soon... just because.
(That gap though...)
Intermittently, he would point to the radio and sing out a particularly intriguing line and then explain why it leaves him curious. For example, when singing "American Pie" he would sing out all of the clues and then say who it was being described in the verses- James Dean, Janice Joplin, etc. And this would nearly always spark into other conversations- where he was when he first heard the song, his most memorable moment invoked by the song, and so on. These were my favorites parts of the car ride. These stories. I would get sucked into the nostalgia and ask for more details. And in hindsight, these car rides were where I learned most about Dana Flowers- the man outside of the Dad version. This is where I also learned that he wanted to name Emily, Emmylou. He and my mom compromised on Emily Louise (Louise was my dad's mothers who passed away when he was only 23) with Emmylou as a potential nickname. Although it never happened, I clung onto that story as if it were a morsel. It showed a different side of dad- an excitement and sensitivity leading up to fatherhood that I had never quite imagined before. And there the name stayed, branded on my mind since the turn of the century. Emmylou- and encompassment of Dad's heritage and family, a picture of familial pride and sweet memories. ps. Middle name is yet to come. Any suggestions?
