Birth Place
Visited Bozeman, Montana
I
was born here, while my parents were living in nearby Belgrade, Montana. My name
was chosen by my mom (Lana Whiting) and dad (Melvin Whiting) while they were driving to the hospital.
"Johnathan" was chosen because my mother
loved the Biblical figure of Jonathan, son of Saul, who had such great
love for David. ( See 1st Samuel 20 and this wikipedia article if you
are interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_and_Jonathan )Also, my dad liked the name, "John," because
of John the Baptist. Hence, the two names "John" and "Jonathan" were
combined into "Johnathan" with an extra "H." (This was also probably due
to my mom not knowing how to correctly spell "Jonathan." :) ) My middle
name, "Reese," was chosen from my grandfather's name, Alfred Reese
Whiting. He went by Reese throughout his whole life, whereas I only went
by it as a child. The reason I changed over to Johnathan was because the other
kids constantly made fun of me. "Reese's Pieces," "Reese's Peanut
Butter Cups," "Grease," and even "Rice-A-Roni" were some of their
favorites. Though I disliked the name as a child, I have grown more fond
of the name, "Reese," as an adult, partly due to my sister refusing to
call me Johnathan and therefore her children only know me as "Uncle
Reese," which I take as a term of endearment. I have even gone so far as to make the
name, "Mr. Reese," my pen name on my first published book: "The ABC Monsters." My mom,
although initially dismayed by my decision to go by my first name,
admitted later on that she had named my siblings and I with middle names
that we could go by as children, and first names that were more "grown
up" names. However, of my immediate siblings, I'm the only one currently
to go by his first name, as my brother and sister don't particularly
prefer to be called "Abraham" or "Deborah," respectively.
Bozeman, Montana, USA:
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