Chloe: Dad, where's Florinda?
Dave: She's out in the car.If you didn't know the somewhat strange history of this name, you might wonder why someone was out in car, by their-self.
The truth is, Florinda is a GPS. And she has a long and checkered history in our family.
The story starts back with my grandfather, long before the invention of GPS-es. Before ATMs were around, people actually had to go into the bank to deposit or withdraw money. So, each week Grandpa would drive to town and talk to a real woman at the bank who would give him the money. Each time he'd come back home, and tease Grandma about the cute little red-head down at the bank who was always so happy to see him. It drove Grandma nuts.
Fast forward to Dave and I, 50 years later. I told Dave this story, and so whenever he would go out of town he'd make jokes about seeing his "girlfriend". Eventually I came up with the name of Florinda for Dave's secret moll. The kids thought it was hysterical, and played along. A couple of years ago one of Dave's mates got a GPS for his truck, and Dave decided he needed one as well. Part of the service provided by the GPS is a voice that tells you where to turn. So of course Dave picked the female voice rather than the male.
And since it had a female voice, Dave decided to name it Florinda. The kids shortened it to Florrie, and she became a member of the family, so to speak.
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