Friday, July 13, 2007

Arby's Drive thru

While at Arby's drive-thru I heard a horn beeping. I looked back...no one I knew....but the horn kept beeping..so I put by head out to see who it was. This lady (who was violently waving her hand trying to get my attention) said:
..."Hi Neva!! do you remember me? I met you in a Walmart check out line when I was pregnant 5 years ago and we started talking...I saw your name and LOVED it. I had a little girl and I named her Neva...I am so happy to see you..I see you all over town(my license plate has my name on it). Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.. we love her name!!! Have a nice day".


Believe me when I tell you that even for me that was a strange encounter....and , NO, I don't remember her....I talk to a lot of people I don't know!

9 comments:

Mamaw said...

That's amazing! And I always worried that you would not like your name. Your dad named you and I did not like it at first because I went to grade school with a girl named Neva that I did not like and consequently didn't like the name. Although before I met her I had heard the name and really liked it. Course it could have been that I did not really name any of the three of you. Jan named Vicki, Dad named you, and Aunt Loty, and Mildred Light (nurse at St Joseph's who was a good friend
to Loty named Tina) who, by the way, has not liked her given name forever. Surprize, surprize, I never really liked my name until I matured a little. My opthomologist commented the other day about what an unusal name that is. I thought it had become more common in the last few years so I'm always a little taken back when someone makes that comment. So other than the lady that you saw at Arby's, I know of one other baby that was named Geneva after you. By the way I did get the pleasure of doing the middle names. That was hard! especially for Tina. I changed my mind a couple of times on that one. The nun at the hospital was about to have me drawn and quartered so I picked Rae at first then ended changing it to Ann, which didn't really suit me because of Vicki Diane. Oh well, that's life!!

Liz said...

Well, I think Neva is an elegant name and the lady at Walmart was smart enough to understand that.

Hope you have a GREAT day.

Neva said...

Hmmm , Dad always told me I was named after his old girlfriend....

GMG said...

Don't worry, that's a beautiful name! It means "It's snowing" in Portuguese... which in Lisbon only happens once every 50 years or so. Unique! ;)

Anonymous said...

WOW...you should be very flattered! I'm sure "little Neva's" mom tells her the story of how she came up with her name everytime they see your license plate. Plus, how cool to be 4 or 5 years old and see your name and name-sake driving around town!

About 17 years ago I was ordering a Christmas gift for my brother and his girlfriend (now my sister-in-law). They were living in New Mexico at the time and both going to school. They had very little money, so I was sending them a food basket that included a ham and all of the fixings so that they would have a real Christmas dinner that year. Anyway, this was way before the internet, so I was ordering my gift by phone from Stew Leonard's, a local specialty market. As I was telling the operator what I wanted said on the gift card, she stopped me mid-sentence to ask me again how to spell my future sister-in-law's name. "K-A-Y-L-A", I spelled.

She then went on, excitedly, to tell me how her daughter, who was pregnant with her first child (her first grandchild), was having trouble finding a girl's name. She wanted something "different". She told me the minute she got off the phone with me, she was going to call her daughter and run the name Kayla by her. She had never heard the name before and just LOVED it. She KNEW it was going to be a big hit with her daughter, especially because her own mother's (the soon to be great-grandma) name was Kay.

I told her my own mother-in-law was known as Kay also (short for Kathryn), and that if I had a baby girl someday that would have been a good choice if it wasn't already my future sister-in-law's name. I totally agreed with her that Kayla was a very different and pretty name. I had never heard of the name either until my brother introduced me to Kayla.

As we completed my order, I wished both she and her daughter luck as I hung up the phone.

Well, I don't know if that baby was ever named Kayla (or even if the baby was a girl), but it made my day to know I may have indirectly helped someone out.

Today, I know of at least 10 girls between the ages of 5 and 17 in our area named Kayla...and, I often wonder if one of them could be "her"...could I have started a fad that day...? lol!

GR8UMPS3 said...

Ok! Ms. O I think that no matter what YOUR name is, People are going to remember you.


Need I say More.

MotherOf3Guys said...

I just cracked up at this story!! It is SOOOO NEVA!! Believe me when I say that I have been with you many times when you "talk to a lot of people you don't know" and sometimes I am just trying to hide but sometimes it is really pretty funny.

Unknown said...

IT'S NEVA!

Amazing how one license plate can change the world.

tanidia said...

OH my God is that an understatement "I talk to a lot of people" My sister came out of the womb talking and hasn't quit yet. It's part of the endearing feature we love about her. It can be embarassing at times but who am I to talk. I'm sure I embarass her plenty.