Interesting memories, Max. I always prefer the personalized gift where you can tell someone was actually thinking of what you liked. I still have a dress my mom made for me (she was an excellent seamstress like your mom) when I was in 2nd grade, about 70 years ago. The dress was really nothing special except for the fact that she had embroidered my abbreviated first name on the collar. Now this is a woman who to her dying day never once called me that - it was always my full name which I disliked but everyone else called me the shortened version. The worst gifts were always the ones my boss gave me: anything with cats on it, like Christmas ornaments, calendars, coffee cups, collectibles, etc. Just how many cat things does one need? ha
Thanks! I think I can imagine your frustration from getting cat-themed presents, even though nobody ever "pidgeonholed" me into one motif for gifts. As for name versions: someone I met a long time ago, a Cracovian for many generations, told me once: "You and I are both from Kraków, and here it's a common habit to abbreviate everything, names included". Wanting to feel more connected to my region by adopting the local dialect, I started to call all my classmates and friends by the shorter version of their names, asking them to do the same to me (I believed my full name was bringing too much officiality to our informal conversations).
Maximilius? Maximus (from the movie "Gladiator" ) ? Maximo? Maxwell? I think that's the only Max names I know, altho a good friend of our daughter named one of her twin sons just "Max". I also feel the officiality in my full name.
It's Maksymilian, but official papers aside, everywhere I'm written down or referred to as "Max" - contact lists in parents' and family phones, letters, text messages, messenger groups, chores lists etc. Even when I was participating in a local go-karting league I was entered in shortened version, because the form was too short to type my full name. Same story when someone wants to call me - beside being angry, it's convenient for everybody to use the shorter form. And replacing the "ks" with "x" (which is a letter used in polish alphabet only in words adopted from foreign languages) is very common in my case, that being for two reasons: 1) because it makes writing even shorter and 2) in that way I appear foreign and mysterious, which I like to use to distinguish myself a little (plus when on few occasions I followed that by mentioning I was born in Switzerland, it made me a few times look like a foreigner in the eyes of my countrymen. Each time I clarified the situation, cause I don't have Swiss citizenship, but having unordinary birthplace made few of my classmates a bit envious).
I only remember asking for one present for Christmas when I was 5 or 6. I wanted a marionette puppet in the worst way. Come Christmas, there was a big box under the tree with my name and I figured my mom did it for a joke so I wouldn't think she had got what I wanted. Joke was on me, seems my older brother (mom's favorite) needed money, so she "bought" his guitar to give to me. She had trained us so well to act like we loved the gift, she didn't even know I didn't like it, LOL
Interesting memories, Max. I always prefer the personalized gift where you can tell someone was actually thinking of what you liked. I still have a dress my mom made for me (she was an excellent seamstress like your mom) when I was in 2nd grade, about 70 years ago. The dress was really nothing special except for the fact that she had embroidered my abbreviated first name on the collar. Now this is a woman who to her dying day never once called me that - it was always my full name which I disliked but everyone else called me the shortened version. The worst gifts were always the ones my boss gave me: anything with cats on it, like Christmas ornaments, calendars, coffee cups, collectibles, etc. Just how many cat things does one need? ha
Thanks! I think I can imagine your frustration from getting cat-themed presents, even though nobody ever "pidgeonholed" me into one motif for gifts. As for name versions: someone I met a long time ago, a Cracovian for many generations, told me once: "You and I are both from Kraków, and here it's a common habit to abbreviate everything, names included". Wanting to feel more connected to my region by adopting the local dialect, I started to call all my classmates and friends by the shorter version of their names, asking them to do the same to me (I believed my full name was bringing too much officiality to our informal conversations).
Maximilius? Maximus (from the movie "Gladiator" ) ? Maximo? Maxwell? I think that's the only Max names I know, altho a good friend of our daughter named one of her twin sons just "Max". I also feel the officiality in my full name.
It's Maksymilian, but official papers aside, everywhere I'm written down or referred to as "Max" - contact lists in parents' and family phones, letters, text messages, messenger groups, chores lists etc. Even when I was participating in a local go-karting league I was entered in shortened version, because the form was too short to type my full name. Same story when someone wants to call me - beside being angry, it's convenient for everybody to use the shorter form. And replacing the "ks" with "x" (which is a letter used in polish alphabet only in words adopted from foreign languages) is very common in my case, that being for two reasons: 1) because it makes writing even shorter and 2) in that way I appear foreign and mysterious, which I like to use to distinguish myself a little (plus when on few occasions I followed that by mentioning I was born in Switzerland, it made me a few times look like a foreigner in the eyes of my countrymen. Each time I clarified the situation, cause I don't have Swiss citizenship, but having unordinary birthplace made few of my classmates a bit envious).
I only remember asking for one present for Christmas when I was 5 or 6. I wanted a marionette puppet in the worst way. Come Christmas, there was a big box under the tree with my name and I figured my mom did it for a joke so I wouldn't think she had got what I wanted. Joke was on me, seems my older brother (mom's favorite) needed money, so she "bought" his guitar to give to me. She had trained us so well to act like we loved the gift, she didn't even know I didn't like it, LOL
That's a great story! Pretending to love a gift isn't a habit I'm happy about developing, although it can be useful at times.
That's great too! Love to know you recorded it!