Call me Clogs…

Now, about my surname. For those of you that don’t already know, my surname is Height. Not the most common of names, but a lot more common than you might think. There are half-a-dozen Andrew Heights on Facebook alone, a black murderer Andrew Height in Alabama State prison, and of course yours truly – Andrew Kevin Height.

There are Heights scattered all over the country like bad pennies waiting to come up as change. Many years ago, when I had a Saturday job in the china department at Birmigham’s Lewis’s Department Store, it came to my attention that there was another Height working on the payroll. I always meant to pop up to see her in the underwear department she managed and have a ‘chat’, but you know how these things are and I never quite managed to get to her underwear.

‘Are you free?’ Well let’s put it like this, I don’t charge.

My ancestors originated in Holland and came over as émigrés in the mid-1700’s, setting up home in Lincolnshire. They were Blacksmiths and field engineers by trade, so probably came to the fens to drain the land, building the dykes and living in windmills surrounded by tulips and wearing wooden clogs. Cloggs are lucky I believe.

Did you zien a muis?

Waar?

Er on de stair.

Warr on de stair?

Just er.

Een little muis with klompen on?

Well I verklarr.

Lucky klompen. Now there’s a thought.

Back then we were the Van der Hoogtes (pronounced fon dare Hocht), a family of metaalwerkers and Smids (pronounced metaalwerkers and Smids).

I’ve Googled the name and my most famous Dutch relative seems to be Aleida van der Hoogte who was born in Amsterdam. Cousin Aleida’s an artist who paints flowers and fairground scenes in a fusion of bold composition, vibrant colour and detail. Her work displays the Dutch Floral Masters influences and she’s a big fan of Pieter Bruegel the Elder which comes across in her figurative work.

I love Bruegel and I can paint flowers a bit, although I don’t… and there the similarity between myself and Aleida probably ends.

Anyway, at some point, probably because Dutch immigrants weren’t exactly welcomed with open arms, an ancestor of mine dropped the ‘van de’ and changed the spelling of Hoogte to the English word of the same meaning – Height.

So that’s me; a badly named Dutchman - Andrew Kevin Height.

Perhaps, as a friend of mine suggested, I should change my first name to Anders, revert to my Dutch surname and chuck in the clogs for good luck.

Anders Klompen van der Hoogtes… I like that.

Just call me Clogs… Clogs van der Hoogtes. Maybe I should move to Amsterdam.