The perfect family and other tall tales!: It's All in the Name!

(Click on the photo above to enlarge the picture)

When I was younger, I didn't particularly like my name. In fact, I didn't like it at all. I'm not sure why but I wished my name had been like Marilyn (my friend from childhood) or Marianne or something more interesting than "Linda". However, now that I am older and involved in an organization that is for "Linda's", I have decided that I just might stick with it. (Don't worry, I never had the idea of changing it!)

I spent this past weekend with 52 other Linda's at Holiday Inn Harbourside in Indian Rocks Beach (up the road about 7 miles). Of course, it gets rather confusing when anyone calls out "Linda" and everyone turns to answer. So, to simplify it, we called each other by our last names. I'm sure other visitors at the hotel wondered why we would yell out, "Hey, Chapman" or "Callahan" or "Buss" ... but we definitely got each other's attention quickly that way.

The hotel had signs everywhere to welcome us as did the Tampa airport which had a sign welcoming us to our annual convention. Don't I feel special and just think, this would never have happened had I not been named "Linda".

We get the usual raised eyebrows and a "What kind of convention" response when we say we are going to the "Linda Convention"! We had Linda's from as far away as California and Toronto. Some from New York, Connecticut and Virginia. A lot from the Illinois, Indiana and Michigan areas and of course, those of us from Florida who hosted the convention.

Technically, the convention didn't begin until Friday afternoon -- however, many decided to come in early so we opened up our hospitality room on Thursday and "Chapman" and I ran a shuttle service to both the Tampa and St Pete airports. Needless to say, people knew we were in town! Yikes! Maybe that's not necessarily good? But, really not bad either.

On Thursday evening, we headed down to the restaurant (mainly outdoors) which is part of the hotel. We began to add tables -- I'm not sure how many we ended up with but probably about 5 tables (for four) all put together. The gal who waited on us did an awesome job .. she even took a stack of our credit cards at the end ... with all of us named Linda, we weren't sure if she would get the bills figured correctly -- she did! No mistakes!

On Friday, we were up and at it getting ready for the official opening when our hospitality room would be ready to go -- homemade cookies (I did that part), cute little clam desert thingies which are actually made from vanilla wafers, pink, white and black icing and a white jelly bean for the pearl. It was a pretty big hit along with orange slices ... a true Floridian welcome. We took turns 'manning' the room although Swafford sat there most of the day -- poor thing!! We handed out goodie bags which had a variety of niceties provided by local vendors and some things we had purchased.

Saturday was the "Linda" walk along the beach -- everyone in their T-shirt which came at registration. And then a lot of them hit "Crabby Bills" for breakfast (oh, they did that Friday morning, too ... same scenario as Thursday night -- just keep adding those tables!) By 9:30am, we all crammed into our hospitality suite to have the annual business meeting which was over in about 45 minutes -- woohoo, thanks "Ingold" ... great job! Short and sweet! Part of the business -- where next year's convention will take place -- Elizabethtown, Kentucky!

After that was over, everyone headed for anywhere and everywhere -- some on the trolleys down to John's Pass with a stop at the Candy Kitchen, others to the beach, some to the pool, etc. We Floridians had to get down to business and prepare for the banquet that would be held Saturday evening.

Oh, in the middle of it all, we were raising money for the charity we had chosen, "Up With Downs of Pinellas County". One of our Florida Linda's has a grandson, Jake, with Downs Syndrome -- we raised $650 to give to the local organization. Linda's daughter-in-law, Cara, came to speak to us this morning about it and brought 6 year old, Jake, with them. He was a little overwhelmed by the crowd but told us "Hi, Linda's" and then wanted to make sure we knew that "Callahan" was his grandma!!

Back to Saturday -- Door prizes for everyone, raffle prizes, setting up a DVD player / projector (which caused us some grief until we tried the third computer), etc., kept us busy until it was photo time. Okay, let's see -- where can we put 53 Linda's all together for a photo!! And believe it or not, everyone was on time or if not, only about 5 minutes late! Must be a generational thing!

And dinner was served in the Key West room at the hotel. Wow, we felt pretty special! And, of course, we couldn't get by without making absolute fools of ourselves (I know, what is knew) ... Linda Burden dolled us up in some kind of T-shirt which has a bikini on it and we had to 'sing' that tune, "Itsy, bitsy, teeny, weeny, yellow polka-dot bikini" ... it was pretty crazy and while I think we were crazy to do it, the cameras were 'flashing' like crazy so I guess they enjoyed it! Then, it was door prizes, honoring several who were there for the first time, three who had never missed a convention, etc. I got to give a special prize ... for the first person who realized that the bar on my Linda badge (we add a bar each year) had been put on upside down ... thanks, Siebert! She and I decided to leave it that way and see how long it took for someone to realize it was that way. About an hour later, one of our new Florida Linda's noticed it so she got the prize.

We watched a video of Jack Lawrence who was at the third Linda Convention years ago because of the song he wrote about "Linda" ... "When I fall asleep, I never count sheep ... " That year, he and the Linda's appeared on Good Morning, America! Linda Seibert, the secretary of the organization, was invited to speak at the memorial service for Mr. Lawrence not too long ago.

All of us were pretty tired by the end of last night -- so crashed figuratively speaking. The first night, some didn't get to sleep until 5:30 in the morning! Are we still teenagers?

This morning was great -- a good breakfast in the Key West room followed by a short worship time. Linda Burden put together a recipe on friendship (like she was baking a cake) and talked about what the ingredients meant relating to friendship. Although when she only put a tablespoon of flour in it and a whole handful of salt, I told her I didn't think she was getting it right ... she had everyone laughing until they cried a few times.

Since Cara was running a little late due to rain this morning, we played a song recorded by Jonathan White for his daughter, Brittany, who has Downs Syndrome, "Sometimes Miracles Hide". Needless to say, there was hardly a dry eye -- and as the last strains of the song faded, the back door opened and in walked Cara with Jake ... what a way to finish up a great weekend.

There were sad good-byes ... we make such great friendships at these conventions. We Florida Linda's meet fairly often throughout the year but some we won't see until next year. So, it is bitter sweet in a way -- it just goes so fast! Great friends and a wonderful time ... and I'll be anxious for next year to roll around again ... and I'll answer the question again, "You're going to WHAT?"

The Tampa Airport welcomed us as did the hotel, Holiday Inn Harbourside in Indian Rocks Beach, FL. And (below) Crabby Bill's will never quite be the same since the Linda's invaded the place!

We made these little critters -- uh, clams -- as a Florida treat.

After the beach walk on Saturday (in the Linda Beach Bash T-shirts), we gathered in the hospitality room for our annual meeting.

Linda Young has been to a lot of conventions as you can see from her badges!!

Pennington and Burden heading for the Banquet Room to get set up for Saturday evening.

We seem to always have a new Linda show up -- this is Linda Gaddor from Alligator Alley -- complete with her "straw" hat! (She spelled it for us .. even though she pronounced it like "Gator"!)