Total Pageviews

Dec 24, 2010

Jupa, Goonda, or Grandpa Jupiter

BB BarrytheBirder and the baby birdsBB 

 I have two grandsons who call me 'Jupa' and two granddaughters who call me 'Goonda'.   That's the four of them and me, in the picture above, at Christmas last year. I decided very early that I wanted to be called 'Grandpa Jupiter' by my grandchildren.   I thought it would make me a commanding, larger-than-life, mega-grandfather.   It didn't occur to me at the time that Grandpa Jupiter consisted of five syllables and that no child, with just one tongue, was going to be able to say Grandpa Jupiter, right out of the starting gate.   My oldest grandson managed Jupa (short for Jupiter) and in due course, his younger brother settled on Jupa also.   On the distaff side, my oldest granddaughter was persuaded by her father to also go with a two-syllable nickname: Goonda.   Which was fine as long as I never went to India where Goonda is a Hindi word meaning gangster or hoodlum!   I'm still adjusting to my son-in-law's sense of humour.   Needless to say, my younger granddaughter knows me as Goonda now also.   The point is that now that I am into my 70th year, these dear little people are my reason for wanting to live another 20 years.   Christmas is for them and they are a joy to me.   Merry Christmas world.
BtheB        
     

No comments: