Elgon Williams's Blog, page 37
August 20, 2013
What Exactly Is An Elgon?
The autobiographical stuff I've written over the years was mostly intended for my children to read, if and whenever they wanted to know more about me and what I did. While they were growing up they heard a good many of my stories but probably not all of them. My youngest, Sarah, may have heard them all. She lived with me for a couple of years after she finished High School. Our private conversations were rarely interrupted.
Somewhere or the other I have journals. I'm in the process of assembling them in no particular order. It is something I intend to do in the background over the next few months while my book Fried Windows (In A Light White Sauce) undergoes the mystical, transformative process from manuscript to published work. The journals might be arranged by period except that spans of my life would be missing. I threw perhaps 20,000 pages of my stuff in 1981 and most of that material was my journal from 1972 to 1981. There are fictionalized accounts of that period my alter ego experiences contained in my works. I guess it doesn't matter much what is true in those pieces. My kids probably know.
Anyway, this is somewhere to begin, I suppose, starting with my name. You see, I got one that shouldn't require my last name. Do you know any other Elgons? It wasn't likely I was going to be mistaken for anyone else. Williams, my surname, is used for continuity with my ancestors and my progeny while my first name is both bizarre and unique enough to be solo if I cared to go with it.
Despite the many variations in pronunciation and the genesis of many monikers over the years – many of them I don't care to mention here because they were either patently offensive or otherwise insulting – I eventually got used to having the weird name and started using it again around the time I met my ex-wife, the mother of my children.
In case we have never met, my name is Elgon. It’s nice to meet you and all that.
What exactly is an Elgon? Well, I have done some research over the years. You see, from a very early age, I wanted to know the answer, too. For the longest time I believed, wrongly, that I was an only Elgon, which was not true at all. As hard as it may be to believe, I was not alone in my suffering this strange abomination of five letters that is so exceedingly difficult for many people to pronounce correctly. Going to the source, my mother, I asked her why would you name me Elgon?
"Ask your father," she responded.
Dad was saddled with the same name and didn't like it any more than I did. That was why he went by Bruce, his alleged middle name, for almost all his life. Even his parents and siblings called him Bruce. He believed it was his 'fallback' name – you know, the one parents give you just in case you don't like their first choice. My mother never gave me a secondary name, only middle initial. So until I figured out I could use the 'B' to become any name that started with a 'B' I felt stuck with the quirky name others mispronounced as Elgin, Eldon, Eljer – even Edgar and Logan (some people really have problems with my name and/or their hearing).
The reason Dad named me Elgon he alleged was attributed to the instantaneous desire to have a legacy. It overwhelmed him the moment I was born and compelled him to name me after him. Although I never personally cared for the name Bruce other than it was the name my dad used, I would have been okay with using it had it been given to me. But my mom intervened to refuse to name me Elgon Bruce Williams Jr. She didn’t want a 'junior' tacked on at the end of my name. As you can imagine, there is a story behind her reason.
There was a really mean kid she knew when she was growing up and his name was Junior Williams. That was really his name, Junior. Anyway, he did really disgusting things like cupping his hand to catch his farts and then holding his hand under a baby's nose and laughing when the foul odor made the poor infant gag. Yeah, I'm not sure I'd want to be directly associated with a character like that, although my flatulence has, at times, been legendary.
So, having consented to Dad's desire to name me Elgon, Mom persisted against the attending nurse's every attempt to add on the Jr. at the end of my name, making my birth certificate read Elgon B. Williams.
Ironically, I was named after my dad exactly, something Dad didn't learn until, at age sixty-two he filed for Social Security benefits in 1976. You see, Dad never had a copy of his birth certificate and apparently never needed it up to the time he had to prove who he was to the Social Security administration as it wasn't good enough for him to know his Social Security number, which they had given to him years before without anything but his driver's license. His driver's license, by the way, was given to him without any examination because he was already driving an automobile at the time when the law passed requiring licensing. The first time he ever took a driver's test was in Texas when he moved there in 1977.
In order to obtain his benefits he had to produce his birth certificate. So he called the courthouse in West Liberty, Kentucky, the county seat of Morgan County where Dad was born in on April 25, 1914. The problem was the courthouse burned down in the late 1920's and all the records were destroyed. So, he was directed to call the Commonwealth of Kentucky for an abstract of birth in lieu of a birth certificate. On that certified document, Dad's name was listed as Elgon B. Williams. The lingering unsolved mystery was how he came to be called Bruce. His answer was inadequate, but I'm sure it was true to the best of his knowledge. "I was always called that."
Where did the name Elgon originate? My paternal grandmother named my dad. Where did she come up with the name. Apparently there was a peddler who was stuck with the name and Grandma Williams liked it enough to remember it and name Dad after the guy. Knowing Grandma, I doubt there was anything untoward going on between her and the peddler. I also tend to think that make his name was really Elgin but Grandma couldn't spell that well.
It is pronounced L' – gun, by the way.
On the day I was born there was only the one other boy who came into the world in the whole hospital. Keith was his name. He was in my class up until the time that I left the Southeastern school system in Clark County, Ohio. So it was a done deal that wed be best friends in grade school. And it was also true that there would only be one Elgon born on May 7, 1956.
If you 'Google' my name you will find that Elgon is also an extinct volcano in Kenya and that there have even been some Williamses involved with research on that mountain. Kind of ironic in a way as none of them are direct relatives of mine – as far as I know. There is also some cosmetics company in Italy. Further down the list you will also find references to some of my writing, my web logs and the like. Which brings me to the point of all this, my writing.
Mostly, I have been a writer throughout my life. Sometimes I write about the process of writing but as that would fill several volumes, I have tended to keep that stuff in my journals. Those of my friends who have suffered through early drafts of my novels may confirm that if anyone could fill several books about the subject of writing that it would surely be me. The truth is that I don't really want to write about writing but it is what I do when I have nothing else to write about. On the interest scale writing about writing would involve acquisition of substantial off-setting karma because I am certain it would not only be an effective sleep aid but might actually kill some unsuspecting innocents.
Fortunately I have done a few other things in my life besides writing about writing. I've lived a little and experienced a lot. Hopefully reading about some of those things will prove more interesting than the mechanics how it was created.
Usually I'm not one to regard labels with any affection. I especially hate that my books have to be categorized and put with other books of some predetermined similar genre. The truth is that my books are as unique as my name, which is fitting as I wrote them. No one else was involved at all and if I decide to have a space craft land on an open field and offer me a ride to another world, why can't I just squeeze that part in between talking about my best friends in school and some of the really silly things my mother used to say?
Why do I have to be a writer of science fiction or fantasy? Sometimes what emerges is fiction only because I exaggerated a little too much while bending the truth to fit the confines of a few hundred pages. Why can't it be a genre unique to the world, another book by Elgon! Let’s create anew sub-genre, call it Elgon-style. Better yet, make a whole new category called Trans-genre. Then everyone would know what to expect from one of my books.
What I'm getting at is that a book is intended to be a vehicle of escape as much for the writer as the reader. I can assure you that the financial situation I have been in for the past few years has made me a firm believer in escaping the real world as often as possible. If what I write causes a reader to laugh, cry or just simply think and in the process it diverts attention away from their private set of miseries, then I have accomplished what I set out to do.
Until then, I can continue being the only surviving Elgon of my clan and likely this hemisphere of our planet. Starting another book, I can be a writer again until the next time I look up from a page and know it's time to draw a new novel to some sort of conclusion.
Somewhere or the other I have journals. I'm in the process of assembling them in no particular order. It is something I intend to do in the background over the next few months while my book Fried Windows (In A Light White Sauce) undergoes the mystical, transformative process from manuscript to published work. The journals might be arranged by period except that spans of my life would be missing. I threw perhaps 20,000 pages of my stuff in 1981 and most of that material was my journal from 1972 to 1981. There are fictionalized accounts of that period my alter ego experiences contained in my works. I guess it doesn't matter much what is true in those pieces. My kids probably know.
Anyway, this is somewhere to begin, I suppose, starting with my name. You see, I got one that shouldn't require my last name. Do you know any other Elgons? It wasn't likely I was going to be mistaken for anyone else. Williams, my surname, is used for continuity with my ancestors and my progeny while my first name is both bizarre and unique enough to be solo if I cared to go with it.
Despite the many variations in pronunciation and the genesis of many monikers over the years – many of them I don't care to mention here because they were either patently offensive or otherwise insulting – I eventually got used to having the weird name and started using it again around the time I met my ex-wife, the mother of my children.
In case we have never met, my name is Elgon. It’s nice to meet you and all that.
What exactly is an Elgon? Well, I have done some research over the years. You see, from a very early age, I wanted to know the answer, too. For the longest time I believed, wrongly, that I was an only Elgon, which was not true at all. As hard as it may be to believe, I was not alone in my suffering this strange abomination of five letters that is so exceedingly difficult for many people to pronounce correctly. Going to the source, my mother, I asked her why would you name me Elgon?
"Ask your father," she responded.
Dad was saddled with the same name and didn't like it any more than I did. That was why he went by Bruce, his alleged middle name, for almost all his life. Even his parents and siblings called him Bruce. He believed it was his 'fallback' name – you know, the one parents give you just in case you don't like their first choice. My mother never gave me a secondary name, only middle initial. So until I figured out I could use the 'B' to become any name that started with a 'B' I felt stuck with the quirky name others mispronounced as Elgin, Eldon, Eljer – even Edgar and Logan (some people really have problems with my name and/or their hearing).
The reason Dad named me Elgon he alleged was attributed to the instantaneous desire to have a legacy. It overwhelmed him the moment I was born and compelled him to name me after him. Although I never personally cared for the name Bruce other than it was the name my dad used, I would have been okay with using it had it been given to me. But my mom intervened to refuse to name me Elgon Bruce Williams Jr. She didn’t want a 'junior' tacked on at the end of my name. As you can imagine, there is a story behind her reason.
There was a really mean kid she knew when she was growing up and his name was Junior Williams. That was really his name, Junior. Anyway, he did really disgusting things like cupping his hand to catch his farts and then holding his hand under a baby's nose and laughing when the foul odor made the poor infant gag. Yeah, I'm not sure I'd want to be directly associated with a character like that, although my flatulence has, at times, been legendary.
So, having consented to Dad's desire to name me Elgon, Mom persisted against the attending nurse's every attempt to add on the Jr. at the end of my name, making my birth certificate read Elgon B. Williams.
Ironically, I was named after my dad exactly, something Dad didn't learn until, at age sixty-two he filed for Social Security benefits in 1976. You see, Dad never had a copy of his birth certificate and apparently never needed it up to the time he had to prove who he was to the Social Security administration as it wasn't good enough for him to know his Social Security number, which they had given to him years before without anything but his driver's license. His driver's license, by the way, was given to him without any examination because he was already driving an automobile at the time when the law passed requiring licensing. The first time he ever took a driver's test was in Texas when he moved there in 1977.
In order to obtain his benefits he had to produce his birth certificate. So he called the courthouse in West Liberty, Kentucky, the county seat of Morgan County where Dad was born in on April 25, 1914. The problem was the courthouse burned down in the late 1920's and all the records were destroyed. So, he was directed to call the Commonwealth of Kentucky for an abstract of birth in lieu of a birth certificate. On that certified document, Dad's name was listed as Elgon B. Williams. The lingering unsolved mystery was how he came to be called Bruce. His answer was inadequate, but I'm sure it was true to the best of his knowledge. "I was always called that."
Where did the name Elgon originate? My paternal grandmother named my dad. Where did she come up with the name. Apparently there was a peddler who was stuck with the name and Grandma Williams liked it enough to remember it and name Dad after the guy. Knowing Grandma, I doubt there was anything untoward going on between her and the peddler. I also tend to think that make his name was really Elgin but Grandma couldn't spell that well.
It is pronounced L' – gun, by the way.
On the day I was born there was only the one other boy who came into the world in the whole hospital. Keith was his name. He was in my class up until the time that I left the Southeastern school system in Clark County, Ohio. So it was a done deal that wed be best friends in grade school. And it was also true that there would only be one Elgon born on May 7, 1956.
If you 'Google' my name you will find that Elgon is also an extinct volcano in Kenya and that there have even been some Williamses involved with research on that mountain. Kind of ironic in a way as none of them are direct relatives of mine – as far as I know. There is also some cosmetics company in Italy. Further down the list you will also find references to some of my writing, my web logs and the like. Which brings me to the point of all this, my writing.
Mostly, I have been a writer throughout my life. Sometimes I write about the process of writing but as that would fill several volumes, I have tended to keep that stuff in my journals. Those of my friends who have suffered through early drafts of my novels may confirm that if anyone could fill several books about the subject of writing that it would surely be me. The truth is that I don't really want to write about writing but it is what I do when I have nothing else to write about. On the interest scale writing about writing would involve acquisition of substantial off-setting karma because I am certain it would not only be an effective sleep aid but might actually kill some unsuspecting innocents.
Fortunately I have done a few other things in my life besides writing about writing. I've lived a little and experienced a lot. Hopefully reading about some of those things will prove more interesting than the mechanics how it was created.
Usually I'm not one to regard labels with any affection. I especially hate that my books have to be categorized and put with other books of some predetermined similar genre. The truth is that my books are as unique as my name, which is fitting as I wrote them. No one else was involved at all and if I decide to have a space craft land on an open field and offer me a ride to another world, why can't I just squeeze that part in between talking about my best friends in school and some of the really silly things my mother used to say?
Why do I have to be a writer of science fiction or fantasy? Sometimes what emerges is fiction only because I exaggerated a little too much while bending the truth to fit the confines of a few hundred pages. Why can't it be a genre unique to the world, another book by Elgon! Let’s create anew sub-genre, call it Elgon-style. Better yet, make a whole new category called Trans-genre. Then everyone would know what to expect from one of my books.
What I'm getting at is that a book is intended to be a vehicle of escape as much for the writer as the reader. I can assure you that the financial situation I have been in for the past few years has made me a firm believer in escaping the real world as often as possible. If what I write causes a reader to laugh, cry or just simply think and in the process it diverts attention away from their private set of miseries, then I have accomplished what I set out to do.
Until then, I can continue being the only surviving Elgon of my clan and likely this hemisphere of our planet. Starting another book, I can be a writer again until the next time I look up from a page and know it's time to draw a new novel to some sort of conclusion.
