[Talk Host]

Aren't grandchildren wonderful. Our names are kind of regular, but I love it when I hear them call us "PaPa" and "Grandma." What names do your grandchildren have for you?

Here they are sitting in a $45,000 Envoy at the GM exhibit at Epcot last week

[JohnZ]

Cut kids Jan. Mine call me Papa John. I used to call my grandfather "Gigi"...it's a Ukrainian endearment. He ate perogies slathered in butter, kielbasi, and other slavic health foods. He was a horseman in the old country and came to the U.S. around 1910 I think. He worked is body hard in the anthracite coal mines of northeastern Pennsylvania and he lived to be 96. There's a lesson to be learned there I think. I regret not spending more time talking with him about the old days. But, I remember a lot of what he did tell me. I intend to pass-on a lot of those memories to my grandkids when they're a little older...they're 4, 7 and 10.

[Kitria]

Mine call me Nana and hubby Papa.. I am interested in other names..I have poems in the works for a book..I have France, Germany, Italy, Finland and a lot in the US covered. What are the equivalents in other countries?

[sammie223]

Our grandkiddies call me GRAMMOMMY and my husband GRAMPA. My mother was Grandmommy before she died and I wanted to "continue" this name. My Dad is PopPop and called this even by the great-grandkiddies. On the other side it is Grandma and Papa for both my kids in-laws.

[jjdees]

JohnZ,

Where did your grandfather come from? My father came here in 1923 from what is today, N.E. Slovakia.

[JohnZ]

Best we can figure, a small village near a place called Kol Wolen (sp) (pronounced "cawl vooleen") in the Ukraine. However, my aunt who speaks the language of my grandfather and did some study on its origin, said it is not pure Ukrainian, but a dialect closer to Russian. The root language in the region is generally called Slovak and although there are differences in dialect, they different "slovak" nations usually can understand each other. I grew up speaking this Ukrainian dialect as it was the primary tongue spoken in my grandparents home which was THE gathering place for all family functions. I can tell you, after talking with the REAL Ukrainians, the language is very close but different. Ya yoshniush noham, pohkiam yo?