Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard

So last night we picked the kids up at the airport and got back to Visthar at around 3am. Yup, that was way past my bedtime. To pass the minutes while we waited for them, Sid and I made up a name game. We had a roster of the kids’ names, hometowns, majors, etc., but nothing else. Therefore, he said a name, hometown, major, and I said the very first association that came to mind. For example:

Jackie (female): Women’s Studies: Well, Jackie Robinson was the first African-American baseball player. There was a movie made about the first women’s baseball team…so Jackie, women’s studies.

James: James is a strong name. James was Jesus’ brother, so clearly James is studying philosophy.

Alexander: Alexander the great was born in Jordan (I have seen his birthplace) and it was on a grassy hill with lots of trees…equaling Alex is studying environmentalism.

Etc.

Whenever I didn’t have one, he did. His were more of a reaction to the name, though, such as:

Rachel [last name]: ah, a good Jewish girl!

[First name] Underwood: oh, well that’s easy! Underwood is such a British name, he must be studying English!

Several of mine also stemmed from songs [of course], like

Devaney from Montana: “My home’s in Montana - Devaney wears a bandana…”

Julio, who is studying political science: you know that Paul Simon song? “Me and Julio down by the schoolyard…” they always wondered what me and Julio were doing down by the schoolyard. Now we know that they were studying political science.

This was a great game. And gave us many, many laughs in those hours of delirium between 10pm and 1:30am. However. It didn’t really help us connect names with faces; instead, when I met Rachel all I could think was “ah, a good Jewish girl!” and I still haven’t stopped singing “Me and Julio down by the schoolyard…”