Dear fellow Jeds:
Well well well here is a web-site devoted to
Jeds. Here,
I can
proudly stand up and say, in a clear strong
voice, "I
am Jed!" without hearing a chorus of shouts
return from the audience, "Like Jed Clampett?".
Like Jed Clampett. Indeed. For this is why I have
always
hated my
name. Yes, my fellow Jeds, I confess that I have
indeed
spent countless late-nite hours
staring up at the ceiling, wondering how on earth
my
parents, born and raised in the
Bronx, came to call their Queens-born
son
Jed. I asked them this many times, but I've
never gotten a satisfactory answer.
Could they have known that two years after I
was born,
the most popular show on
television for the next eight years would feature
a "hoo-doggy"in',
rag-wearin' hillbilly
with my name? No of course not. Did this make my
youth
any easier for me? No of course
not. I was already a different enough child to be
unpopular
-
overweight, unathletic, loud, clumsy - here was
one more
thing about me to make me an alien, a
freak, an object of ridicule. And our country
cousins
last name -"Clampett" - well this
was only an invitation to have various parts of
my body
stomped, pinched and "clamped" in a
variety of inventive ways. Oh they were inventive.
Going through life, my name continues to label me
automatically
as an
outsider, especially far from the Appalachian
Hills here
in New York City. Why on earth would
there be a guy named Jed here in New York City?
"Is it
a nickname?" No. "Is it short
for anything?" No. It's just Jed. J-E-D. D as in
dog.
Not Jeb. "It must be short for
Jedidiah." Wouldn't I know if it was short for
Jedediah?
I can only remember once meeting another true
Jed. I
was pumpkin picking maybe 10-15
years ago. I heard a mother call out, "Jed! Jed
over
here!" Of course, never having met
another Jed, I approached her. "Is your son's
name Jed?"
"Yes it is."
"Is it a nickname, or short for anything?" "No,
just
Jed." Wow! Sure, I've had the odd
occasion where someone has said they had a friend
named
Jed, but of course, further
investigation revealed it to be a nickname of
some sort.
I was still virtually
alone in my Jedness.
I've not yet read messages left by my fellow
Jeds, but
I hope I'm not the first to point out
the only Jed I've found to be proud of - in
"Citizen
Kane", Joseph Cotten's character was
named Jed Leland. And Joseph Cotten is a great
actor.
Hmmm, I would think as I stared at the
ceiling, perhaps that was my parents inspiration.
I could
hold on to that hope.
Now, finally, at this point in my life my
attitude is
changing
towards my long-hated appellation. I have a
wonderful
new woman in my life, (in fact she
found this website for me) and being from Israel,
she
comes with a name that is also unusual
here in New York. She also comes without any
preconceptions
about the name Jed. To her,
it's a new one syllable sound. And she loves the
name.
And so do all her friends!
Suddenly I'm getting more positive feedback about
my
name than ever before! And believe it
or not, I'm actually becoming proud of it. Yes. I
am
Jed. I AM JED!!!!!!!
Jed Becker
2/10/02
New York, New York
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