Hello, Mr. Doongroggle .. I mean, Googledrum

In the little town where I grew up, if mail was addressed to someone whose name started with a D, and the postmaster didn’t know anyone by that name, he put in Box 396.

That was the Dromgoole box and, likely or not, that probably was the right call.

More than six decades later, after a career somewhat in the public eye, I can certainly relate to the postmaster’s dilemma – and to my father’s delight in seeing all the different ways people misspelled his name.

t happened to me in Everyone’s Favorite Newspaper not long ago, in a boldfaced byline for Glenn Droogoole. That was actually pretty close, just one letter off.  These days, with everyone “Googling” whatever they need to look up, Dromgoogle is a fairly common misspelling.

It’s an unusual name, I admit. Pronounced Drahm’gool. Silent e. Try spelling it over the phone. A “d” can be mistaken for a “b” or a “t”. An “m” sounds like “n”. And all of those “o's."

So my spelling over the phone goes something like this, “D as in David, r, o, m as in mother, g-o-o-l-e.”

I’ve learned not to be surprised when I get mail addressed to Bromgoole, even once from company headquarters. Or how about Lyn Dormboule? Trombull? Gromgoole? Dromgode? Dromgook? Drumdoogle? Dromgle? Even Glenn Goole and Goolie Drom. Maybe the best (worst) was a call for Gleen Trongolley.

One learns to live with an unusual name, even appreciate it. How can a person who gets mail addressed to a Mr. Dranugrate take himself too seriously? I got a letter from the prestigious Society of Professional Journalists asking Mr. Romgoole, “Does it seem to you they do not make journalists the way they used to?” Well, yes, it does.

A Merkel correspondent mailed a letter to Mr. Glenn Vomgoole, underlining that this was “PERSONAL – DELIVER TO ADDRESSEE ONLY!!!!” (yes, four exclamation points). I got it.

And don’t even get me started on all the times I’m called “Charlie.”

My brother headed the Chamber of Commerce here in the ’90s. He’s been gone from Abilene for 20 years, and I still get greeted, “Hi, Charlie.” Happened a couple times at an event just the other night. Well, I’ve been called worse.

For the record, Dromgooles have been in America since at least 1652. They came from Ireland, settled in Virginia, and made their way to Tennessee, Mississippi and Texas.

Texas has more Dromgooles than any other state. There’s at least one other Glenn Dromgoole in Texas. We had dinner a year or so ago. John Dromgoole (second cousin) is a noted Austin gardening expert with a longtime popular radio program there. Dromgoole’s office and stationery store in Houston sells top of the line fountain pens to collectors, including my nephew (hope he gets the family rate).

Will Allen Dromgoole was a famous Tennessee poet in the early 1900s. Her best-known poem, “The Bridge Builder,” was a favorite of legendary University of Texas football coach Darrell Royal and still is quoted fairly often. (She gave a well-received program at Abilene’s Literary Hall in 1898, according to an article Jay Moore found online in The Abilene Reporter.)

Sgt. James Dromgoole served in the Revolutionary War. Edward Dromgoole was an early day Methodist circuit rider. Congressman George Coke Dromgoole of Virginia introduced and championed a bill in 1845 to annex Texas. (A few years earlier, he killed a man in a duel.) There’s a North Carolina ghost legend concerning the death of young Peter Dromgoole, also in a duel, in 1833.

Dr. J. P. Dromgoole in the 1870s promoted his English Female Bitters as a cure-all for women’s aches and pains and other maladies. A Catholic priest in New York – Father John Christopher Drumgoole – was the patron saint of street urchin newsboys and has been nominated for sainthood.

I “Googled” Dromgoole to see how many of us there might be in America. According to one source, the census found 407 Dromgooles in 2010. Of course, that doesn’t include the Drumgooles, the Gooliedroms, or the Dranugrates, much less the Trongolleys, or those who gave up and changed their name to Smith.

Glenn Dromgoole is a former editor of the Reporter-News. He and his wife, Carol, own Texas Star Trading Company, a book, gift, and gourmet shop in downtown Abilene.

Editor's note: We have corrected Mr. Droogoole to Mr. Dromgoole in his piece we reprinted from 1989 about the HSU Cowboy Band performing in France. We were using the French spelling of his name.

More: "Ambassadors from Abilene"

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Hello, Mr. Doongroggle .. I mean, Googledrum