Beyond the South End

Too Many Sandras

When I was growing up I always thought there were too many Sandras in the world. There were four in my class and we also had S for a last initial. Too many I thought. I always wanted to change my name to Alexandra or Cassandra, the Roman and Greek equivalents to Sandra. Later on I found out that Shaindle is Jewish for my name.

Then along came Facebook and a revelation by my friend, Jean Monroe, that there are 25 Sandra Sylvesters listed there. Lo and behold, she was right!

I checked them out the other day and found it very interesting. I found only one near my age. The rest were in their 20s and 30s. Some came by the name through marriage so I don’t know as I should even count them.

There were four Sandras who were black—one from Nigeria. They came from diverse places: Wisconsin, Rhode Island, Michigan, Connecticut, California, New York, Oklahoma, Florida, and Texas in the States; and in the countries of Scotland, Nigeria, Ireland, and England. The Sylvester family was a big one back in the day and I suppose it's possible some of these Sandras are related to me. The family did spread out a bit.

The one from Bristol, Connecticut is one place I lived when I resided in Connecticut.

Besides the Sandras on Facebook, I have come across a couple more in my lifetime. One lived in Maine and I corresponded with her a couple of times by letter. I don’t have her letters anymore, however, so if you read this, Sandra from Maine who is not me, please feel free to contact me here.

There is another Sandra here in Georgia and the strange thing is she has the same doctor as I do. I’ve asked them to ask her if I could contact her, but so far no dice. I always have to remember to tell them my birth date so they don’t get our files mixed up.

The only thing bad about having someone with your name may be an identity mix up. Suppose another Sandra who lives near me does something against the law. Then suppose I get stopped by the police for speeding or something (not likely by the way). They look at my name, check the computer in their cruiser and arrest me for the wrongdoings of that other Sandra. Sounds almost like a horror story doesn’t it?

To all you Sandra Sylvesters out there please don’t mess up somehow; and if you would like to meet me at sometime in the future you can always email me at southendstories@aol.com.

By the way, I blotted out the information on my driver's license above for obvious reasons. That picture was taken when I still wore glasses. Next time it will look entirely different. Maybe that's a good thing.

Thanks for listening.