A Note from my Late Grandmother about Eleventy

Our basement flooded this week, so I’ve been cleaning up the mess. In that process, I found a 22-year-old letter from my grandmother (who passed away Christmas 2023) to my mom that had a little Eleventy naming history that some folks might enjoy.

I first talked about the significance and history of the Eleventy name back in a blog post from 2018 celebrating the project’s first birthday:

I chose it because of a story my grandma Nonnie loved to tell about how I learned to count. Rather than move from ten to eleven like a normal child, I felt it appropriate to use the teen suffix for the numbers eleven and twelve, counting “ten, eleventy-teen, twelvety-teen, thirteen, …”

The discovery of this letter was very surprising to me as I hadn’t reviewed the contents of this box in almost 20 years (long before Eleventy). I’ll include a photo of the letter and of the newspaper clipping of the Dennis the Menace comic she had included below (with some redacted unrelated personal details for brevity).

Dennis the Menace really hit a soft spot with me this week, so I am sending it to share with you. When Zach was about three or four, he was counting for me and after ten he said “leventy teen.” When I said, “But Zach, we don't say 'leventy teen,” I got this reply. “But I do. I do say 'leventy teen.” That has always been one of my favorite memories. So now we know there really is a “leventy teen.” He was right all the time.

Miss you, Nonnie ❤️