In 1960, I was in second grade and living in Dayton, Ohio when my Mom took me to see a brand new Disney movie called "Pollyanna," starring British child actress Hayley Mills. My childhood would never be the same.
I fell in love with Hayley the same fan-girly way little girls fall in love with Miley Cyrus today. This was eons before anyone had even dreamed of videotape so instead of watching her movies over and over and over again, I listened to the soundtrack recordings on my record player. I could -- and did (much to my family and friends' chagrin) -- recite huge amounts of dialogue at the drop of a hat. "The Parent Trap," "Summer Magic," "The Moon-Spinners," and "The Chalk Garden" -- I saw and loved them all.
One of my strongest memories about my Hayley obsession was repeatedly telling my Mom that if I ever had a daughter, I would name her "Hayley" because I loved the name -- and the actress -- so much.
Well, I did give birth to three daughters and their names are Erin, Megan, and Molly .... nary a Hayley in the bunch. Not my fault, though. With every pregnancy, the very first girl's name I suggested to my husband was "Hayley" and he simply could not be coerced into considering it. I dearly love the names we gave our daughters but it would not be a lie to say that I still have an itsy bitsy teensy weensy smidgen of disappointment that Hayley never made it into the line-up.
2 comments:
If you send me an email at the following address I'll send you some photos of the Pollyana house you might enjoy. They aren't something I'll ever be posting.
tatteredandlost@gmail.com
I loved Hayley Mills as a child, too. I always wanted to name a daughter Jacqueline after Jackie Kennedy, but my husband nixed that too. I ended up with a Caroline (close, but a generation removed).
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