I have one of those funny last names, Boese. Even though it is only five letters, it is nearly impossible for most people to pronounce it correctly the first time. Boise, Bo-ez, and numerous other permutations of it are commonly used. We pronounce our name as Bose, like the famous speakers and headphones. Might even be distantly related but they never call, the dirty bastards. Funny thing is that even the way I pronounce my last name is wrong. The name was probably derived from the German word b\u00f6se, which is pronounce bay-za and means bad, mad, or crazy. When my fathers family immigrated to this country in the early 1900s, an immigration service officer probably change the \u00f6 to oe thinking that it was approximately the same sound or maybe one of my ancestors did it to disguise the names origins. Most of my ancestors settle in Kansas and Oklahoma where they still pronounce the name as Bays. The story I was told was that when my father was moving out west in 1942 to work in the ship yards he decided that the first motel clerk to pronounce the name, what ever that was, had to be better than what he grew up with, so Bays was then pronounced as bose. A name is just a name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I told you that possibly true story to prep you for my latest rant. I get asked all the time about my family\u2019s origin because of that name. It goes something like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFunny name. Where is your family from?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cKansas\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHa Ha, I meant what country is your family from?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLast time I looked Kansas was in America\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I just don\u2019t get this fascination with ethnic origins. For example, we have dear family friend who when given the opportunity will dress up in a kilt even though he is 3rd<\/sup> generation. Dude, it\u2019s a dress! Brave Hart was a great movie, but Mel Gibson is an anti-Semitic Australian. Get over it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Face it, most of our ancestors with exception of slaves, immigrated here to escape a horrible life in a shit hole country. If they loved the old country, they would have stayed. They were poor, preyed upon, often pious people who threw it all away to come to America crammed together on rusty rat-infested ships. They came with the clothes on their backs and not much else. They did it for a better life or maybe to escape the law. For example, one of my wife\u2019s ancestor was a horse thief. Even the so-called native Americans were migrants. They left the lush lands in Asia, crossed a dangerous land bridge during a fucking iceage to escape the terrors of the old world. Sure, they had it tough, but at least they didn\u2019t drown on the Titanic as the elites didn\u2019t allow them on the lifeboats. <\/p>\n\n\n\n My father\u2019s family was no exception. They were members of religious sect (Mennonites) who spent the better part of 400 years moving all over western and eastern Europe avoiding the draft. They moved from Holland to Prussian occupied Poland till the draft caught up with them. Then they were invited by Catherine the Great to immigrate to Russian occupied Poland as she needed good farmers and as an inducement, no draft. They lived there for 150 years, keeping to themselves, keeping their low German language (Plautdietsch), planting their crops, and doing what ever religious sects to in their free time (in breeding). Eventually the draft caught up with them again and they moved on to Kansas (Wow, Russia must have really been a shit hole). In Kansas they planted crops, dressed, and prayed as their ancestors did and did their inbreeding thing. But something here was different. My father spoke only low German when he entered first grade. By the time I was born he spoke only English knowing only a few words from his youth. Avoiding the draft? Of his seven brothers six served in the US military. Only one, Uncle Howard, claimed conscientious objector status. Four hundred years of draft dodging and language isolation was gone in a generation. American did that to them as it did to so many others. Is that a bad thing? Oh, hell no!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I have one of those funny last names, Boese. Even though it is only five letters, it is nearly impossible for most people to pronounce…<\/p>\n