The first part of our name comes from Chris’s mother, Aurelia.
Aurelia (also spelled Aurelía, Aurélia or Aurelija) is a feminine given name from the Latin family name Aurelius, which was derived from aureus meaning “golden”. The name began from minor early saints but was given as a name due to its meaning, and not from where it originated. My mom’s parents (particularly her dad) really loved that name…so much so that they wanted to ensure that she went by it, so they did not give her a middle name. The pronunciation is Ah-REEL-yah or Aw-REEL-yah. Being from the American south, my mom has heard many southern-drawlers try to pronounce her name with their accents. Her sister calls her “Arr-REE-yer” and my dad would sometimes playfully call her REE-yer.
My mom has always encouraged me to do whatever I thought I could do and to be whoever I wanted to be. You might say she buoyed me (y’know, helped me to float and not sink).
Our family had a few boats while I (Chris) was growing up. The first one was the houseboat pictured here. It was named after my mother: Aurelia B (her maiden name is Bell). The boat was originally powder blue, and we painted it yellow, mom’s favorite color. For some reason, after we painted it I suppose my parents felt some need to change the name, and the new name was JMB which stood for “Joe Momma’s Boat”, so it was still named for her even if her name wasn’t on it.
We later got a ski boat also. We spent a lot of time on the lake, and in particular we liked to spend a lot of time out of the marina in the middle of the lake. We had a dog (a Samoyed named Misty) and we needed to be able to take her back to shore to do her business. At age 9 I was enlisted by my dad (along with my brother, age 7) to handle that chore. We would also be instructed to swing by the marina to pick up some more ice, and sometimes some beer and cigarettes for my parents. The marina store would just put those purchases on my parents’ “tab” and off we would go.
I only witnessed my parents have serious fights on two occasions, and one of those was when my dad was trying to tease my mom about having summarily sold the boat without consulting her. One day these two guys in a jet boat rode up to JMB while we were out in the water and said how pretty it was and asked if it was for sale. My dad told them no and thanked them for the compliment, and one of them left a business card “just in case you change your mind,” then off they went. A couple of days later at home, my dad came home from work and announced that he had traded the boat to those two guys for their jet boat. We hated jet boats, because they’re loud and obnoxious. My mom ran into their bedroom absolutely crying her eyes out. My mom believed my dad, if only for a few moments, and even though he ran after her apologizing profusely and explaining it was just a joke, I’m not sure she ever forgave him for making her think that boat that she loved so much was gone. She did love that boat and the good times we had out there. When we had to sell it when we moved away a couple of years later, it really crushed us all.
When we did finally start to move, we still had several months to go but dad knew it would be prudent to put the boat up for sale right away, as it was likely that in those days and in that location (1983 on Lake O’ The Pines) it might take some time to sell. Fortunately (or unfortunately) a gentleman wearing a Stetson driving a Cadillac crested the hill of the road down into the marina the weekend after dad had put a “for sale” sign on her and bought her on the spot. She was sold about 3 months earlier than we would have liked, and we missed our last summer on the lake, but at least she got sold. A common saying in our family came out of that episode, as thereafter my dad would frequently say in moments of uncertainty, “well, you never know when a cowboy in a Cadillac is going to come over the hill…”
We moved back to east Texas in 1990, and a few years after that my parents eventually bought another boat on the same lake. That one was a fiberglass houseboat (1981 Nautaline 42). It was a bit of an upgrade from JMB as it had twin engines, went faster, had a refrigerator and was generally more comfortable. Best of all she had a flybridge (she could be piloted from the top deck). That boat had been named Incredible by her prior owners and my parents didn’t change the name. They also got a jet ski to go along with it. But, we never had as much fun in those days as we did when my brother and I were kids. You can never go home again.
Chris is thrilled to return to boating and to be indoctrinating James to this exciting lifestyle. We’re both ecstatic that our boat is named after our mothers, whom we dearly love. Here’s to both our moms and many years building our own memories with our family and friends.