My daughter’s name came from a song we used to sing in the car during road trips. In “Everything That Glitters (Is Not Gold),” Dan Seals tells the story of a man and his daughter who live in a mobile home and have an old horse named Red. His wife left them behind for the glitter and lights of the rodeo.
He’s raising little Casey, but she’s asking questions that only a mom would know; a mom who doesn’t even call on her birthday.
I didn’t realize I loved the name Casey until I heard the song. We were driving up US 1 in South Florida when the it came on the radio. We sang together, and once it ended, we decided that if we had a daughter, we’d name her Casey. My mother had said I had Irish in my blood and Casey is as Irish a name as it gets. She didn’t come along for another six years.
In the song, he sings directly to the woman who left them. She’s making it big and now he feels she left because he and Casey were in her way. One day, she’ll feel the loss. You have to listen to the song to hear the pain in his voice.
It may be another sad country song to most people, but it pulled at me. I couldn’t place what that pull was. Not back then.
In 1944, my grandmother was a singer and songwriter. Imagine finding your own grandmother listed in the Catalog of Copyright Entries for songs titled “Courting You”, “Romancing With You”, and “Uncle Sam’s Fighters”. I wish I could find the lyrics and study her writing style. Or simply hear her voice. I never met her. Never heard her speak. My mother was eight when she abandoned her.
If I had found the songs while Mom was still here, would she have remembered her mother singing them while folding her little dresses or while washing dishes in the sink? I don’t imagine she’d have kept the lyrics, or even a 45 if it existed. She hated her mother.
Beyond singing these songs, some believe my grandmother ran away with stars in her eyes. She liked to be in front of an audience, her sequined dress glittering in the lights, much like the woman in the song. The parallels are quite striking really.
I can see the young girls, Casey listening for the phone, my mother with her nose to the window, both waiting, birthday after birthday, for their glitter to come back home.
When my Casey was born, she changed the meaning of the name forever, giving it a new identity, happy memories, and the feeling of being loved.
As for my grandmother, I’m pretty sure she never found her gold.
Thank you for reading. I appreciate you.
~ Vicki
I hope you'll stay connected by subscribing below.
WAIF 
Leave a comment