I, like so many other kids in California, grew up eating 'Barbara Ann' bread, that white stuff that always stuck to the roof of your mouth, especially when eaten as a peanut-butter sandwich. Sometimes it would take an hour to finally rid yourself of that layer stuck so tightly. Of course, I loved the picture of Barbara Ann that adorned the package wrapper: a little girl with blond curly hair, blue eyes and rosy cheeks.
You might well understand that when my parents announced we'd soon have a new baby in our family I announced a baby girl should be named Barbara Ann. Of course father really wanted a boy so they noted 'Bobby' would suffice, but that was not a consolation for me. Finally I was sent to stay with my parents friends, Maggie and George who didn't have children, only a fluffy lap-dog who bit my finger on introduction.
Days later, when I arrived back home to meet my baby sister, I was shocked to see she didn't have a single hair on her head. I said: "Take her back. She doesn't look like Barbara Ann" although that was now her name. After all, I had been an only child for six years, my parents had waited seven years for me to bless their lives and this new addition was not what I had expected. In time "Bobbie" (her nickname) did grow hair: straight, red and she became worth keeping after all.
5 comments:
Wow, the power of the internet. I thought that I was the only "Barbara Ann" named after the loaf of bread, and now I read in your blog, that your sister is a "Barbara Ann Bread" baby as well! If you share my website with her perhaps we can share stories! www.casaesperanza.us
I was googling "Barbara Ann Bread" and had to smile at your post! I was a third child who didn't have a name -- until my mom saw the bread truck from her hospital window in Whittier. Unlike your sis, I did look like that blonde girl with blue eyes, though nothing much like my brown-haired, olive-skinned mother.
Thanks for sharing that : - )
Barb ~
i was named after barbara ann bread. my maternal grandfather worked for them for years & when my father would not pick out a girls namea because , " I was not going to be a girl" I remeber stories of my grandfather knowing the owner & his daughter barbara ann (my nickname from my grandparents was bobbie ann)
I was actually named Barbara Ann for the same, by my 16 year old sister. I thought for my entire life I had been named after the beach boys song, but I discovered that I was too old to he truly named after the song, so the loaf of bread is the real story. Just think there are at least 2 women named by their older sister after that loaf of bread.
I grew up in Pasadena CA in the 50s and 60s. If you drove the Pasadena Freeway starting from the Arroyo Seco part of Pasadena towards Los Angeles you would pass the Barbara Ann bakeries on the right just before the turn off to go North towards Griffith Park and the Zoo. It was a landmark for many of us. My elementary school, Daniel Webster, had many field trips for 2nd grade students to this bakery. It was a wonderful place to visit. The bakery was teaming with workers dressed in white making all sorts of neat things; donuts, bread, and cakes. Each student was given a donut (which we ate) and a minature wrapped loaf of bread to take home. I don't recall when the bakery closed but it must have been in the 60s, some time. But a lot of us have good memories of that place.
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