City of Pevely, you have wounded me.
It went down on the evening of Oct. 16, which also happened to be my youngest child’s 30th birthday. That event also sort of hurt my feelings, to tell the truth. You can lie to yourself about the passing years all day long, but when your baby hits three decades, you know the spring has left the chicken.
But back to Pevely. Several months ago, city officials took up the weighty topic of what to do about a handful of street names that were redundant or in some other way not quite up to snuff. They held a public hearing about proposed changes that drew a couple of handfuls of residents.
Those folks were upset about having to change their driver’s licenses and other ID if the street names were changed.
They were missing the crucial point. The proposal called for Peggy Court to disappear, becoming Banks Drive instead. People who are named Peggy, reference photo at top of column, were the ones with a legitimate beef.
Apparently, the other proposed changes can wait, but the Board of Aldermen soldiered on with its attack on my name. Aldermen had an ordinance drawn up – No. 1431, in case you want to use it on your protest sign.
The legislation reads in part, “Whereas, the Board of Aldermen of the city of Pevely deem it advisable and in the best interest of the city to change the name of Peggy Court to Banks Drive to alleviate the confusion and health and safety issues.”
Those suckers voted it in 5-0.
Full disclosure: Pevely has kept another street called Peggy Drive, which supports officials’ argument that some people MIGHT have been confused over a street grid with two Peggys. I don’t buy it. Reference the Leader masthead in the fourth column of this page. There are two Peggys in the Leader office every day, and there’s hardly ever any confusion. Just ask the folks who answer our phones.
(“Which Peggy do you want to speak to? You don’t know? Well, what’s your name? Hey, Peggy Bess or Peggy Scott, Artemus Harrumph doesn’t know which one of you called him. Whoever it was, line 5.”) See, it’s manageable.
And, sometimes our situation provides levity that gets you through a long day. Like the time Peggy Scott left a message for me from Peggy Koch, the Leader’s Children’s Story author and frequent letter writer. Peggy Scott’s note: “Peggy, Peggy wants you to call her. Peggy.”
I’m a little touchy about my name. In grade school there were a few kids who took to calling me “Piggy” for fun, and two of our five grandchildren jointly took up that same pronunciation for several months: “Grandma Piggy, can I have a cookie?” “No, kiddos, I ate them all. Oink!”
I had a friend in the fifth grade who told me she simply didn’t like my name and instead called me “Pegasus” and a boyfriend in college who told me he wanted to call me “Sue” instead – my middle name. Neither of those relationships lasted.
Then there was the Discover card commercial featuring the bearded, rumpled man with the Eastern European accent who called himself “Peggy” to phone callers and then gave ridiculous answers to customer service questions. You think anyone ever felt the need to bring up that commercial to me when I wanted to talk about something (anything) else?
The capper came in a recent dinner out with grandson Roland. Using my iPad, we got a notion to check the popularity of family names on the Social Security website. If you’ve never done this, it’s really kind of entertaining. The agency keeps track of Social Security card applications to identify the most popular baby names present and past. You can see how many people shared your name in the year of your birth and how it has trended over the years and decades.
We checked all our immediate family names and a number of extended family. Turns out, my name won the prize for the least popular, trending down.
The year I was branded, 1955, wasn’t so bad. There were 7,982 Peggys recorded that year, a little less popular than Jane and a little more popular than Vicki. But for 27 of the years since, Peggy didn’t hit the top 1,000 list. And in 2016, only 19 Peggys were recorded NATIONWIDE, tying with the names Odyssey and Peace (This, I learned from babycenter.com.)
A name more popular than mine? Dimple. It’s hard to believe more parents wanted to say: “Dimple, it’s time for you to practice the piano,” than, “Peggy, it’s your turn to clear the table,” but there you have it.
The name Peggy was most popular in 1937, which makes sense with my mother’s assertion that I was named for her best friend, Peggy Sue, who was growing up in that era. (No, my real name is NOT Margaret. Asked, answered, a bazillion times. Nor was I named for Buddy Holly’s song, released two years after I arrived.)
So, Pevely, remember that ordinances can hurt. In addition to me, there are 19 infants across this wide country who probably haven’t slept through the night since Oct. 16.
Peggys have feelings, too.
