Autumn arrived here on Sunday with a bang — the bang of windows slamming shut and lawn chairs hurled against the side of the garage. James Lileks tweeted: “Huge angry wind. Why, we call it “trouble wind” ’round these parts. Fall got tired of waiting and decided to shove summer out of the way.”

Weather changes are always aburpt here in Minnesota, but this year we didn’t even get a chance to mourn the passage of summer. The umbrella and chair cushions on the deck haven’t been put away, and my closet is still full of tank tops and flipflops. Even the squirrels seem to have been caught off guard, having left at least half of the walnuts on the tree in our front yard.

I feel the same about my passage from middle age to senior citizen status. It happened too quickly, and I wasn’t prepared. My oldest daughter turned 40 this spring, and in a few months, my oldest grandchild will no longer be a teenager. When an online friend announced the birth of her second great-grandchild, I realized we’re about the same age. How did all this happen? Haven’t I been paying attention?

I’ve always had the mindset, “it’s never too late,” but I’m wondering if enough grains of sand still remain in my hourglass. My mental bucket list has so few checkmarks, and I still have so many unfulfilled dreams.

Like my friend Sharon, autumn for me has always been a time of new beginnings. Perhaps it’s the memories of the start of the school year with the smell of freshly-sharpened pencils, the sight of thick notebooks with unblemished pages, and the sound of chattering children waiting on the corner for the middle-school bus.

Is it too late for me to enjoy new beginnings?

When I was growing up in the Fifties, my cousins and I called our grandparents by their last names. For me that was Grandma and Grandpa Hewitt, and Grandma and Grandpa Fenne. I couldn’t imagine calling them anything else. This traditional form of address was an expression of respect. A few of my friends were even more formal and called their grandparents Grandmother and Grandfather. 

I don’t remember giving much thought to the grandparent name issue when my daughter was born. Her paternal grandparents were as old as my own grandparents, so it seemed natural to call them Grandma and Grandpa Schubert. My parents were in their early forties, so their first names, Gordon and Elaine, were more appropriate. Somehow these were shortened to Grandpa Gordy and Grandma Lainie. When my nephew and nieces came along much later, they also used those names for their grandparents.

When I became a grandparent myself, there wasn’t much question I was going to be called Gramma Mary since the other grandmother was already called Gramma Carol by her grandchildren. Eventually my name was shortened to Grammary.

Many grandparents receive their nicknames because the grandchildren mispronounce their names. My middle daughter’s first child was also the first grandchild on her in-laws side, who picked Nana and Papa Bear as their names. However, my granddaughter changed Nana to Nina, and that’s how she’s known to all the grandkids. I always thought she should be called Granny Grubbs, but not surprisingly she vetoed that name.

Papa Bear passed away when his granddaughter was only two. Eight years later, Nina married a man with the same first name as her late husband. The grandkids call him Binky, a nickname my granddaughter bestowed upon him. She was, after all, the first grandchild on that side, so she had naming power.

One of my other granddaughters has a grandmother she calls Honey. Apparently the name came from her first grandchild because that’s what she called him. It’s seems many grandparents receive their nicknames this way.

Other grandparents have ethnic names. My friend of German heritage called her grandparents Oma and Opa. My Greek son-in-law’s mother should be called Ya-Ya, but I think she’s just plain Grandma.

I told my friend not to worry to much about what her grandson calls her. I’m sure she’ll answer with love to any name.

Here are a few resources for choosing a grandparent name:

• The World’s Only Grandparent Nickname Book
• The Grandparents’ Guide to Choosing a Name that Fits
• The New Grandparents Name Book
• How to Choose Your Grandparent Name
• Different Names for Grandparents
• Grandparent Names Around the World
• Nicknames for Grandparents
• Names for Grandparents

 If you’re a grandparent, what do your grandkids call you? What do your kids call their grandparents? What did/do you call your own grandparents?