The offspring of Croupy Ben Lee

Mr. Ben Lee was called "Croupy Ben" because while he was talking, his voice would shift back and forth between tenor and bass. In my novel, there's a story about him, in which he was trapped under a wagon, calling for help, and a passerby thought there were two people under the wagon. My grandma remembered Mr. Ben telling his children's names in that same up-and-down sing-song: "Eskew, Oskew, Bank Hugh and Reevie, and the baby calls itself Naintsy." Ten or so years ago, I used this idea to write an Alabama Limerick:

A family living at Dancy

named all of their boys something fancy;

they had Noel, Patrice,

Gabriel and Maurice,

and the baby girl called herself Nancy.

When Maw Maw would tell the names, she would laugh like anything. As a child, I thought it was really bad of the Lees to put so much thought into their boys' names, and apparently to leave the little girl to think of a name for herself. I guess it used to be a man's world, for sure.

I wish I could have conveyed the unfairness of it all, when I wrote the limerick.