I had to chuckle at this episode!
Just before our first grandchild was born, our son asked his dad “ What grandparent name do you want to be called?” My husband responded fairly quickly “I don’t care. They can call me ‘Old Fart’ for all I care”. My husband was disappointed because had wanted to be called Pappa but that name had already been claimed by the other grandfather-to-be
Our son thought about it for a while & then announced that he had come up with a suggestion. “ I think your grandfather name should be ‘Olfa’, he said (combination of first 2 letters of Old Fart). That sounded like a good alternative so Olfa was agreed upon
Since “Olfa” had a somewhat German sound to it & my husband had lived in Germany for about 4 years in the late 1950’s while his dad was stationed overseas with the Air Force, we came up with the idea that my grandmother name should sound German. The named decided upon was “Oma”, which is the actual German word for grandmother
So, here we were about to become Olfa & Oma. We love our grandparent names & everyone in the family agrees that we ended up with the very best names after all!
We have 2 grandchildren, one granddaughter & one grandson, both of whom are about to graduate for UT Austin. Over the years, we have traveled extensively with our grandchildren, starting when they were just 5 & 3 years old. We have a motorhome & have taken them all over the country; sometimes they have been with us for weeks at a time. We have done other trips as well, both with just the grandkids but with their parents as well. We wouldn’t take anything for the trips that we have enjoyed together
Once our granddaughter called when she was in middle school. She called to thank us for taking them so many places. A discussion in one of her classes that day had revealed that many of her classmates had not even been out of Austin, many had not been out of Texas. It opened her eyes to the advantage of travel that she & her brother had been given & experiences they had. Of course, our son & daughter-in-law have taken the kids on great trips, too, but we feel we have made a contribution their lives that will never be forgotten
In fact, our granddaughter will soon be starting her first full time job so she is collecting her own camping equipment so she can explore & camp whenever she can or gets the notion. It is rewarding to know that a tradition has been handed down.
It won’t surprise me if, one day when the time is right, our son decides to claim “Olfa” as his grandfather name, starting a new tradition. Who knows, maybe Olfa & Oma will live on in some ways!
