Saturday, November 1, 2014

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

When I saw the Sepia Saturday prompt photo of several portly gentlemen filling their plates in a buffet line (all smiling over a buffet table groaning with delicious offerings) dressed in suit jackets, neckties and, of course, nametags, I was reminded of a wedding reception I attended years and years ago.

It was one of those perfect summer days here in Maine: warm, blue skies, sunshine, slight breeze. The gathering was beneath a striped marquee pitched in a field overlooking a quiet cove; people strolled down to the reception from the road by way of a mown pathway through thousands of blooming wildflowers; everybody was in linen and silk, dribbed and drabbed in gold and silver and pearls.
It was, indeed, a high affair!

It was one of those “blended family” things—everybody’s parents seemed to have been married more than once, so there were ex-wives and partners, divorcees and stepfathers, half-siblings and step-siblings, an occasional stray cousin a few times removed; there were also about two hundred friends.
          It was a huge wedding reception!

We all wore name tags, which was bad enough, in my opinion (whatever happened to simply introducing yourself to people you don’t know?), but compounding the issue was the fact that everybody’s name tag carried an explanation that clarified one’s relationship to either the bride or the groom:
          Bride’s brother
          Groom’s first cousin
          Groom’s college roommate
       
 You get the idea.

Everybody spent the afternoon navigating a drink and a small plateful of tastefully served hors d’oeuvres, staring at each other’s chests and mentally leaping through branches of various family trees...and the winner was:

Hello!
My Name Is
Mary

Bride’s mother’s third husband’s second child

24 comments:

  1. In some ways those name tags make sense...introducing yourself is one thing, remembering all those people is another. but that name tag is a classic! Just think how handy they'd be for someone's genealogy though....if they'd survived.

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    1. I agree -- it's a genealogists dream, isn't it? It was funny, though, watching everybody puzzle out the descriptions!

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  2. Welcome to the modern world. At least this family had a good sense of humor about it welcoming all the exes and steps without agonizing over whose toes would be stepped on, whose feelings would be hurt, who would throw the first punch. Cheers! May everyone live happily ever after.

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    1. Great sense of humor, Wendy -- and everybody DID live happily ever after (or, so far...).

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  3. Name tags at a wedding does seem a bit extreme, but we once went to a wedding of an identical twin, and really it would have been good if the groom and his best man were wearing tags, as even their relatives were having trouble telling them apart. Hopefully the bride knew for sure!

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    1. Oh, now THAT brings up interesting possibilities, doesn't it? The more I think about it, the funnier it gets!

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  4. Well I suppose it does give you a 'chance to back off if you realize you are facing someone you really dont want to know ! Your winning choice is hilarious. Thanks.

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    1. Sure, if you can figure out the twists and turns of the name tag...some of them were pretty convoluted.

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  5. Love it. I was at a wedding a couple of weeks ago and they had name tags. I wrote "Cecil" on mine and when someone asked me why it didn't say "Alan" I told them that I had always wanted to be a Cecil.

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    1. You and I should go to weddings together, Alan! I'll make up some bizarre relationship; you'll switch your name! Wonderful...

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  6. Can't say that I have ever heard of name tags at a wedding! We had name tags at a family reunion, which were different colours based on the "branch" of the family. It was interesting to see a few multi coloured tags (where cousins had married cousins)!

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    1. Oh, VERY interesting! Good idea, though, to use colors for family branches... it could get colorful, indeed!

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  7. My mind boggles at name tags like these within families - after all there is usually one person who 'knows' the ins and outs.

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    1. It's the "outs" that are usually the problem, right Bob?

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  8. The thing that gets me about name tags is trying to read the other person's name tag surreptitiously so they think you actually remember who they are.

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    1. And you're doing it while THEY are doing exactly the same thing! I find it's much easier to just tell people who I am...

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  9. What a hoot...our relationships are so weird sometimes. And hopefully people already know at least one person when the get to these family gatherings.

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    1. They must know the person who invited them, I'd think. But in this day and age, you never know!

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  10. Love Mary's name tag. Great conversation starter.

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    1. Of course, it could be a conversation ENDER...it all depends!

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  11. I had to chuckle at the image in my mind of people walking around peering at name tags to see who was who. Image those poor people with bad eyesight.

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    1. Now I never thought about that, Kerryn! I don't think Braille would be appropriate, do you?

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  12. I’m so glad someone took the name tag challenge from the prompt and what a story you shared!

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    1. Thanks for those kind words! It's a funny, funny world we live in, isn't it?

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