‘Can I get your email address?’

Back in the day, before everyone had access to email through their desktop, laptop, cellphone, tablet, car, wristwatch, tractor and bass boat, we had a single email account at the Marengo Publishing Corporation office. That lone account served the newsroom, advertising department, circulation, bookkeeping, pressroom and mailroom. The fact that the head of the person in charge of administering the account didn’t blow off is nothing less than a miracle but I guess that was before everyone on the planet with an account got 328 emails a day.

It wasn’t long before MPC employees had that newfangled thing called the internet on all our computers and communication changed forever. At that point, we were all using our personal email accounts through Gmail, Hotmail, AOL and the like for work. Then we got official corporate email accounts and new addresses. The IT guys who set up my account spelled my name wrong and I spent the next 20 years telling people yes, Wichmann has two n’s but please only put one on my email address or your message will never get to me.

Email addresses must be the most over-explained things in the history of confusion. When you give someone your email, they’d better get it right or you can kiss your insurance paperwork or doctor’s appointment confirmation goodbye. You can spell a person’s name wrong on snail mail and it will still get to where it needs to go. Trust me. I’ve received enough mail for Melissa Wickham to know this is true.

But mess up one letter on an email and you’ve doomed the message to cyber purgatory. No one will ever see it again.

I think this reality is what’s behind so many personal email accounts. When email was new and exciting, everyone wanted their address to stand out — to be memorable, clever and easy to remember. This was the era long before you could open a message window in your email program, type (or touch) a single letter of the recipient’s first name and have their full name and address autofill without having to type the whole thing. It’s gotten progressively harder to screw up an email but it’s not impossible. Trust me on that, too.

It would have been wiser to set up our personal accounts with sensible addresses like Jane.Brown@Provider.com but what fun was that. My dog showing friends and I came up with quirky addresses like ToyDogs10 (yes, she had 10 dogs. They were all very small. Don’t judge), Goin4200 (200 is a perfect score in the competition obedience ring) and the like.

While these addresses served their purpose admirably within the subculture of people who do dog sports, they often led to total confusion for the other 99 percent of population. If I’d known then what I know now, I’d have chosen something different for my own personal email address.

Tervnmal@Provider.com has caused me no end of grief. A few days ago, a business associate asked, “I have to know — what does that mean?”

When I established that account about 20 years ago, I was training and competing with my Belgian shepherds. Jamie was a Belgian Tervuren and Phoenix was a Belgian Malinois. Common nicknames for these breeds are terv and mal. Tervnmal.

Pretty darn cool, huh?

It was, until I’d explained it for the 729th time to someone who has no point of reference to either Tervuren or Malinois.

But I’ll keep it. It keeps Jamie and Phoenix’s memories warm and close every single day and that makes me smile.

Comments: Melinda.Wichmann@southeastiowaunion.com