What's in a name?

May 2005

On the way to school this morning we came across a mob whose car had broken down. Angela seemed to know them. We stopped to help. 'Any water?' the old bloke asked. Not unusually for out here the radiator had run out of water and overheated. We handed over all the water we had and wished them well on their journey in the opposite direction. 'Who was that?' I asked Angela. 'They're from Antarraningna, his name is Nextweek'. I did a double take, "What's his name?". "Nextweek" Angela replied casually and then a sly smile spread over her face as she realised my amusement. "Yeah, it's a nickname" she explained. "What's his real name?" I enquired. "Don't know, everyone calls him Nextweek, Nextweek Jones". Further enquiries about his family led me to realise who he was. His brother 'Two-bob' had dressed up as Father Christmas for our School Christmas Party a couple of years ago.
Earlier in the week I had given a lift to an old lady called Kathleen Motorbike. She has one sister called Polly and another called Topsy.
There are a fair swag of Biblical names out here too. I have a Lazarus at my school, very much alive. I also know of an Elijah, a couple of Isaiahs and an Ezekiel.
Then there's the theme names:
Names starting with K - Kennedy, Kaureen, Karina, Keenan, Keaton, Kassidy, Kiara, Kiana, Kerry, Karen, Kevin and Katrina.
Or names that sound the same - Trenedy, Grenedy, Benedy, Kennedy, Gwenedy, Renedy.
I think my favourite is still a little kid from one of the other schools - Amazon Glen. If you can imagine what an Amazon child would look like it would be this kid, pint sized with wild man hair!
The school day over and Troopy turned for home we passed old "Nextweek's" car about 20kms up the road further than we left it, abandoned. About another 2kms further still we found a tired little troop wandering along. We stopped and they piled into the back of an already crowded car and drove them to a nearby family member's house. Not sure how they'll get home from there or what they'll do with the car. Maybe they'll think about that next week.