How I got a nickname….

Whenever I mention my nickname, Froggi, I get asked how I got it. I then ask if they want the short story that isn’t true or the long story that is. It’s a 50-50 shot which they ask for. You get both.

SHORT STORY

I was often asked this during my RVing years when campfires were a thing, so the short (and partially true) story was it came from my going hoarse when I smelled smoke. I really do, even cigarette smoke. I’ve been that way since my mid 40s.

LONG STORY

This is the true story of how it came about (and yes, it’s long). Back in the late 70s when I was a computer analyst/programmer, I went out to lunch to buy a baby shower gift for a friend and saw the cutest squeaky frog at the checkout. I bought it for me and sat it on my desk to “eat the bugs in my programs”.  I still have him!

One day a co-worker stopped by and handed me a little ceramic frog that someone had given them and they thought I should have. From that point on, I became a frog collector. You can see some of my old collection here.

Fast forward to 2001, my late husband was diagnosed with cancer. We decided we needed to enjoy life more and I told him we could get a bike or a boat. He opted for the motorcycle, having ridden in his youth, and having met my youngest brother and his wife who both rode. We bought his Harley-Davidson Electra-Glide (biggest bike they had) and all was good. We got in several rides between his surgery and his radiation treatments.

During the six months of treatment, he tried to convince me to learn to ride my own so if something were to happen to him, I would have that to enjoy. In December we ventured back to the same Harley dealer and traded in his big bike for a slightly smaller HD Softail for him and a HD Sportster for me.

I wanted to chat with others online about learning to ride and since Facebook hadn’t arrived, I used the Delphi Forums. I wanted a handle that represented me but didn’t identify me directly. Frogbiker was my choice. I made many, many friends in the Delphi forums. I even started all-female riding online group, The Rumble Sisters.

After my husband passed, I spent 2005 traveling the country on my newest Harley-Davidson, a Softail Deluxe, and got to meet many of my online friends I had met on Delphi, male and female. Many called me Froggy Donna and I adopted that as a semi-nickname.

In 2007, I sold everything, including the majority of my frog collection, bought a used motorhome, and became a full-time RVer. Having used Froggy Donna as my handle in the various online RV forums, it was an easy way to introduce myself.

I opted for a vanity tag for my motorhome and applied for LILYPAD but ended up with LILIPAD, so I then morphed my nickname into Froggi Donna and got a vanity tag for my car, POLLIWOG.

I’m still friends with the many, many of my motorcycle and RVing folks I initially met online and I always smile when someone sends/tags me something cute with/about frogs.

So there you have it – how Froggi became my nickname (and the reason behind the title of this blog).