It was always cool....well at leat to me

Growing up in Northern Michigan's small town of Acme I can remember seeing that name on the Roadrunner show, typically it was shown on a box of something the coyote was going to use to blow up the roadrunner with. I remember asking my mom if it was really shipped from where we lived and she said "no, it just means its the best." That simple thought has always followed me throughout the years. I lived in the best town.

Later on in my life I realized that Acme really was only a very tiny community and part of a larger town, sort of like a suburb but not in the exact sense of the word back then. Maybe now its more like that with all of the new people moving up here from downstate. As I became older and ventured into the world on my own I learned a new theme that I like to call "are you related?". With the last name Lautner in this area it used to be really hard to go anywhere and be introduced with my last name without hearing "are you related to (insert random name)?" It used to drive me crazy explaining that while I was sure we were related, I wasn't entirely sure who said person was.

This brings me to today, I am sure most of you know who Taylor Lautner is and frankly while I think he is a great actor I am really tired of saying "Yes that is my REAL last name. Yes, we are probably related. No, I don't know him personally." Seriously? I am over twice his age, why on earth would I change my last name to that of a child star to gain attention? I like him am proud of that last name, I grew up with the stories of the old country (Germany) and how I am only a third generation born American. I do know he is related by the original travelers that came here from Germany. I have talked with his uncle when he was still only just a baby! Yes, since his fame the family tries to keep him grounded and remembering his roots, they have done a great job of that and I applaud them.

My point to this is that I grew up in the same lineage as this "star", there are a lot of us with the Lautner surname, no it isn't that common and most likely we are related to all of them, unlike the last name Smith or Jones. For the record I have always been honored to carry the Lautner last name, its always been cool to me:)