Minnie was named Minerva Rae, after her great great grandmother on her mother’s side. Minnie and all her siblings were named after long gone ancestors with ancient names. Minerva was a goddess, Minnie knew that much. Her older sister, Winifred Alice, was nicknamed Pooh, after Winnie, and Minnie thought that was stupid. The girl’s older brother, Douglas Hamilton, made sure no one called him Dougie anymore. If you forgot and called him Dougie he’d punch you. Following along a couple years after Minnie was Charlotte Grace, who everyone called Charlie.

When she was a girl one of their Father’s uncles teased Minnie incessantly about her name, calling her “Minnie the Moocher” after a song he heard a long time ago. Minnie sometimes complained to her mother about Uncle Bill and his teasing, but her Mom told her just to ignore him and he would stop. Instead, the next time she saw Uncle Bill, at Christmas, when he started singing Minnie the Moocher, Minnie poured her milk all over his head. She got into hot water over that, and was sent to her room with no dessert, which was a great disappointment since it was ice cream snowballs.

Much later on, long after Uncle Bill was dead, Minnie met Danny in the corner bar, and got a great kick out of the fact that his last name was Calloway. Cab Calloway was the man who wrote Minnie the Moocher, and Minnie had since come to love it. Minnie laughed out loud when Danny told her his last name. He grinned and stared into her eyes with his great big brown eyes and said, “What’s so funny?” Minnie told him all about Uncle Bill, invited him home, played him the song and then she took him to bed. Danny Calloway moved in pretty soon after that.

July 7, 2009