Fact or Fiction?

WEDNESDAY, JULY 14, 2010


Fact or Fiction?

Sometimes with age comes a certain uncertainty. I spend time wondering if what I am thinking is accurate history, a figment of my imagination or plain old faulty memory.


I was thinking about mom last nite and how Rose named us kids all for some reason or the other. We all have middle names which after a certain amount of family pressure started to have some rhyme or reason to them. At least I think we do.

I am second in line and am named Steven Douglas. I did not comprehend this since we had no Steven or Douglas in the family so I continued to ask mom how she came up with the combination. She told me that she was a real history buff and named me after the little orator who ran against Lincoln. I kind of doubted this and challenged her on it since the Great Debater spelled Steven incorrectly. His Stephen to me really is the same as Stefan. When I pointed out the disparity in the spelling Rosie told me that Douglas was not Catholic and we were so I was named after the Polish saint. It took some digging but I finally came up with St. Stephen the martyr and the different St. Steven the Serb King. Mom could spin a tale so I am not so sure of the spelling or naming thing. After all, St. Steven was Orthodox and we were Roman Catholic so thinking back it is highly unlikely that the daughter of an Irish immigrant would be naming her son after an Orthodox saint.

Maybe she really did name me after the Little Giant because I did not want to come into the world and was quite late. According to the birth announcements I was also quite large when she finally delivered me. It was not beyond Rose to have her own little inside joke.

My older brother is Michael David. I never could get mom to explain this. I have thought that one of her old boyfriends might have had one of the names. Some of this history is buried in the family archives and possibly my brother knows the answers. It will certainly be something to discuss over some family get together or 'friends and family' phone call.

I do remember the Saint Michael the Archangel explanation and how in the War of the Sons of Light Against the Sons of Darkness it was Michael who was the prince of light. He lead forces of God against the darkness of evil and vanquished them. Michael always defeated the dragon and although it is unclear to me some have it that he personally threw Satan out of heaven.

One of the things mom did tell me was she did not want to tag either of the boys with dad’s name: Herman Lester… thank God for that! It would have been hell to be named Herman as a child back in the fifties.

The next youngest sib is Joanne Leslie. Jo knows precisely all the history of her name but I don’t. I am sure that Leslie was after dad. If he couldn’t have a boy named after him, with a little creativity the first girl could carry the name on.


The youngest is Rita Lauren and the Lauren is after Grandpa who was Lawrence. It obviously ended the war that my mother and grandfather had if she was willing to name her fifth and last child after him


I remember all of these middle names so well because Rose did not normally use our entire name when talking to or about us. Michael was Mike and I was Steve. Mom thought this sounded more adult. She never referred to us as Mikey or Stevie. Joanne was normally Jo and Rita was Rites. We did know our full first name and were reminded of it if mom wanted to get our attention. It was what mom said loudly to snap us out of our stupor. To snap us out of our stupidity she would use both the first and middle name. STEVEN DOUGLAS meant that I was in trouble. Rarely did we hear Joanne Leslie or Rita Lauren in caps. The girls were pretty much saints and rarely got in trouble.

Because the girls were not certified candidates for sainthood I did hear their middle names often enough to remember them. That is, all of the girls except the fourth girl... Margaret. I am not sure if this might have been because Margaret was the only child with three syllables in her first name. More likely, it was because I just have a truly terrible memory.


As far as I can remember Marg pretty much a saint was though and Margaret was the spitting image of mom. We confirmed this on several occasions by comparing photos of each when they were the same age. Except for the style of the veil worn at First Communion it could be Margaret in mom’s picture. The picture of mom in high school could have been Marg. Every time I see Margaret in person I think of mom at that age. Mom was a bit plumper than Marg but they were the dead ringers.

This uniqueness of that look is labeled having the Potter genes. I think it might really have been the O’Gorman or the Americanized Gorman Genes but there are not enough pictures still around of the great aunts and uncles to do a reliable comparison. The Potter gene includes blondeness. Uncle Jim had that gene in spades. Only one of his sons, Richard, got this favored gene. I just got a high school announcement from his daughter and it could have been mom or Margaret in that picture.


Possibly the reason I can’t remember Margaret’s middle name is because she is really a saint. I doubt her not having a middle name is really fact. I really love Marg but am going with the plain old faulty memory excuse.

Mom’s baptismal name was Roseanna, three syllables. She changed it at some point herself to Rose Ann. I don’t know her middle name or if she even had one. I can’t imagine Grandma hollering Roseanna Blank in upper case although I am sure it must have happened from some of the repeated anecdotes.

Here I am going to go on the theory that mom was a saint. And Marg, be a saint and return my call.

© 07.13.2010 steven d philbrick SR+ DakotaDawg

From an email from Marg: Steve, I've been working a lot and now I have the flu and will read the emails asap...my middle name is Elizabeth. I was born on St Margaret's day. Mom had a grandmother and great grandmother named Margaret and Elizabeth. Hope all is well...back to the couch for me.


Yup... Marg is a saint too.

POSTED BY SRPLUS AT 7:56 AM