I have a little story to tell you about Copley's name. See when we got Copley we were really, really missing Boston. Culture shock is a real thing. Me and my husband are not sheltered people. He has lived on three continents and I have lived all up and down the east coast of the US. But you know there is something about the West that is just different. Moving from Miami to Maine was probably similar but I was a bit if a clueless kid. I still feel great when I fly into MIA and see those palm trees and that beach. Boston fit me like a glove. The art museums, the history, riding the subway, the theater, the food. The impressionist gallery in the MFA. Ben had different things but it was the same idea. We both loved Boston and often talk about how much we miss it. Vacationing in DC and working in Central New York and Southern Maine let me see the whole Atlantic and I have to say I think there is something that culturally connects most East Coasters. Maybe it is the history, or the art or the fact that the mayflower landed over there but there is just something about it. Out here, at least then, we hang out with a lot of East Coasters or people who's parents are East Coasters (maybe I should say Coaster because sometimes I think people from the Pacific Coast are practically New Yorkers themselves). Now a few of the people I would count as our very best friends are from the West but it wasn't the case when we got Copley.
Most of the time I see the strange cultural disconnect coming. Then there are the times when I bumble forward thinking that I am doing something perfectly normal or looking for something that I think is common and everyone looks at me like I have three heads. Copley's name was apparently one of those things. John Singleton Copley was a Boston born early American painter. I GUARANTEE you have seen a painting of his. He did lots of portrates of people who were famous figures of the American Revolution (Hancock, Paul Revere, Samuel Adams etc...). His pictures are all over the National Gallery- and if you have been there you may have even seen his self portrate. It is also the name of a hotel, a square and most importantly to me
an MBTA station. Every day (sometimes twice and if I was going out at night then four times) I rode through that subway station. Once while me and Ben were dating I even got food poisoning and threw up in a trash can in Copley station! Needless to say me and Copley station were good buddies. Maybe it was because I became so intimately familiar with the station, or my constant trips to the Museume of Fine Art but when we got Copley and named him there were two facts I seemed to think were true.
- People could properly pronounce the word Copley.
- Everyone knew who John Copley was,
The first time someone read Copley's name and said "cope-ley" I literally laughed at that person. How silly! Cope- ley- isn't that vet tech a moron. Then the vet came in the room and read the chart "Coop-leigh." WTF was going on. How can no one pronounce this word!!!!! Then came "what in interesting name?" or "oh are you a history buff?" Seriously people? I am not a history buff. I even had to wikipedia the guy before I named my dog to make sure he didn't do any horrible stuff I would want to know about. Not a history buff.
P.S. I thought I published this like a year ago, but I guess not, cause I found it in drafts on my phone app. Lets see how the phone formatting goes too!
Posts
