You may ask, Why is the Name of my blog Dramamommaspeaks?
I’ve often wondered why I chose Dramamommaspeaks as my blog’s title.
It made a lot of sense to me and still does.
I teach drama.
I am the momma of two wonderful girls.
I talk about both many times in a day.
Plus, it came from my personal email address many years ago. I’m fairly right brained so anything I can do to keep my life organized always helps me. Having some funky blog name or website name would frazzle me.
I took one of those very serious tests on Facebook. You know the kind….and it revealed Helen should be my name. You know what? My MIDDLE name is Helen. Spooky.
I was called Hogan when I was a Girl Scout about a million years ago. We were training to be camp counselors. I needed a name for the girls to call me other than my real name.
I remember I liked the TV series “Hogan’s Heroes”. Why, I haven’t the foggiest idea. You know how sometimes you remember the strangest things, but can’t remember what you ate for dinner last night? This is one of those.
I chose my name as I made my bed, while I was listening to the “Hogan’s Heroes” theme song playing on the TV. Gosh, isn’t that exciting to know?
In college my nickname was Coonrad. Some people even called me Coonie. People liked the nickname so much I was given a raccoon stuff animal in honor of it.
My maiden name is Conard. It’s German and our ancestor’s names were Kundr. My understanding is that when my family came to America, the name was changed to make it easier to say and spell. There aren’t a lot of Conards in the country. We are NOT Conrads. Ugh.
My students call me Momma B., Mrs. B. and Mother Baldwin. It depends upon where I am and with whom I am working. Some students desire the intimacy a nickname gives a teacher, so it’s fine with me.
I taught the last group of students for six years straight. Some of them loved theatre so much they took every class I taught progressing through each grade level. Those are the most beloved students of mine.
Even their parents call me Mrs. B.! That’s when I know I’ve made an impact on a student’s life.
It doesn’t always occur that a teacher is fortunate to teach a student over many years, but I taught in an unusual public school program for home schooled students. We saw them once a week for one or two hours for the entire school year.
That isn’t a lot of time, but when you think about how much a child develops over nine months, it is marvelous to observe and be a small part of their lives.
Most of my good friends call me Deb or Debbie. I call myself Deborah Baldwin when I speak as an author to separate the author image from the teacher/director image.
Some times people call me Deborah when they are feigning that I am guilty of something. When you stretch out the De-bor-ah, it has a nice lilt to it. They usually sing it like a doorbell ringing, “Oh, De-bor-ah!”
My family called me DB when I was a child. My oldest brother teased me with stressing the second syllable of the word, so it was “DeBORah.” His name was Kent. There isn’t a lot you can do with his name to torment him and he knew it. Argh.
Names are so important. I’ve taught kids with names that made absolutely no sense and those poor kids knew it. One student was named after a tree in India and another was named after a type of dwelling. You could always tell they wished they’d been named Mark or John or Allison or Sarah. My mother warned me to select names for our daughters which they could use their entire lives. That was a good suggestion. Their names are dignified and classic.
And now….I’m called Grammie or Grandma. Whichever name my granddaughter gives me, I’ll accept. She’s only six months old. Maybe she won’t name me those. Maybe it will be something like Meemaw? (actually, she calls me Maamaw) I suggested to her mother she could call me Your Royal Highness, but that didn’t seem to go over too well. I had to give it a try, you know?
Oh well, there’s always the next grandchild…..
Dramamommaspeaks works for now.
If you’d like to know more about me check out how theatre saved my life: https://dramamommaspeaks.com/2018/05/07/how-theatre-saved-m%ef%bb%bfy-life/
Or an interview of me and my book, Bumbling Bea ,https://dramamommaspeaks.com/2017/01/20/authorblogspot-another-author-interview-of-me/
P.S. The photos in this blog have nothing to do with the theme. I mean, what do I use for names? I especially like the cow. You’re welcome.
Contact me at dhcbaldwin@gmail.com or DeborahBaldwin.net
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