Why Yaicha?
I originally wrote this as a post, but I continue to get questions from people about the name of this blog, so I want to make this entry easier to find. Read on, and you shall learn why I call this blog “Yaicha.”
Back in high school, I spent some time one summer as a volunteer in New Hampshire. The group I lived and worked with was small and highly earthy-crunchy (first time I ate a vegetarian diet for an extended period of time), and it was the first time in my life I grew a full beard, but all of that is another story. The point here was that we had very limited musical options available besides the radio: an 8-track tape player. Yeah, those were the days!
Anyway, we only had a handful of tapes to play and one of them was The Pousette-Dart Bard, which I had never heard of before. After weeks of hearing that tape over and over, I grew quite fond of the music. Check them out if you like. Nice mix of upbeat pop songs with some serious ones thrown in now and then. Jon Pousette-Dart is still performing and I think I should go see him play one day.
Well, the most poetic song on that tape was called “Yaicha” and it’s just beautiful. It spoke to me then, and it still does today. It’s very short, and you can listen to the whole song on Jon Pousette-Dart’s website.
And there’s more to “Yaicha” that gives it personal meaning for me. We named one of our dogs, a friendly, fun Rottweiler, Yaicha, and she was a puppy while my youngest daughter was a baby. Naturally, the dog grew faster than the child, but for about a year they grew up together, with my daughter following the dog around, sharing dog food (she’d eat a piece, then give the dog a piece, and I have this on video so I can prove it anytime I want to embarrass her). In fact, my daughter’s first word was “yaicha” — that’s how much she loved that dog. And that kid still loves animals more than I can believe.
But there’s a tragic end to Yaicha’s story. The dog got hit by a car and died when she was only about a year old. Taken way too young, and missed by many who knew and loved her. My daughter can’t really remember her, except from the family videos she has watched.
So, Yaicha has deep roots in my life and some special meaning. It’s also quite an unusual name and word, and I wanted something different to name this blog. The origin goes back to The Pousette-Dart band, but the significance is strictly personal to me. And this blog is meant to be personal, in the sense that it reflects me. So there you go.
3 Responses to “Why Yaicha?”
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February 27, 2008 at 8:20 pm
well, you sure do love to share, don’t you?
at least i was sharing the food with the dog.. that’s saying something.
August 1, 2008 at 7:39 pm
Hello from a girl in Oregon named Yaicha! My mother also named me after this song. It was a source of embarrassment while growing up, but am quite fond of it now. Well, except when I have to pronounce it constantly to people. Cheers!
October 20, 2008 at 9:00 pm
my memory for exact dates is not the best. I believe it was around early 1978 when I bought the album you all are refering to. i to was greatly affected by the song,yaicha.so much so that when my daughter was born I decided along with my wife we would name her yaicha. she hated the name for years. insisting to be called Annie . i new that some day she would embrace her name asshe is every bit as beautifulas her name denotes. by the way yachia originates from from native american language. it means begining light. how fitting as my daughter certainly is.