The Tile Project: Introduction and First Tiles

My place of employment is next door to WHYY which has lovely slate tiles in front of their building engraved with the names of their donors. I have been walking past those tiles multiple times a day for eight years now, making up stories about the people who bought them. I've been at a bit of a loss for what to share with you recently, so I thought I'd give you some of these stories. With a small catch!

There is one person that I actually know in real life whose name graces a tile. At the end of our tile series we'll have a contest to see who can pick out the real person! It's like Two Truths and a Lie except it's One Truth and a Whole Bunch of Lies. There will be a prize for the tile series truth guesser!

THE BARRS: MAX JACK ELLEN SUE KELLY & DIANNA

Jack and Ellen Sue Barr met in high school when they were both in the school marching band. They were high school sweethearts and dated all through their college years. On the day after college graduation, Jack proposed to Ellen Sue against her parents' wishes and they were married in a traditional ceremony the following year. One of the things that always sort of delighted Jack was the double L in Ellen Sue's name. At the age of 16 he decided that if he and Ellen Sue ever had kids, he wanted them to have double letters in their names. Dianna is not pleased about this because she was never able to find pencils or bicycle license plates with her name on them. Kelly just wishes her name wasn't "soooo 80s" as she always complains. On the day the wording for the tiles was due to WHYY Ellen Sue got into a fight with Kelly and Dianna, culminating in her daughters saying they had a hard time taking dating advice from someone who had only ever dated one person. Ellen Sue was so stung by this she decided to put the dog's name first. Jack still doesn't understand how Max got top billing.


JEANNIE CRAIG, CASSIN CRAIG

Jeannie and Cassin Craig are identical twins, both with dark brown hair and hazel eyes. Jeannie Craig hates her name because people always called her Jennie Craig and made jokes about her weight even though she is as slight as a bird. Cassin Craig hates her name because people always assume she's saying Cassie and, as she has said in exasperated tones to her friends a million times, "Who the hell names their kid Cassin!?" Her friends think it's weird too, but always just assumed it was a family name. Jeannie loves being a twin. Cassin recently buzzed off her long brown hair just so that people would stop calling her Jeannie by accident. Jeannie cried for 20 minutes when she found out about Cassin's hair. Cassin didn't even donate it.