Middle Drawer Productions

Is it common to really know the meanings behind all the obscure names given to the millions of corporations or random, sentimental, cherished knick-knacks people hold onto for life? The answer is no. It is common for these names to represent one of the many ornaments of one’s life but rare to learn how or where it originated. If we were to learn the basis behind the motivation of naming a significant label or name, we would almost certainly be able to relate in one way or another and/or possibly learn from it.

My name is Wendy Siskin. When my brother, Scott Siskin, wanted to start a production company, he came to me wanting to brainstorm together to come up with a special, symbolic, personal, commanding, and evocative name for it… yet still trying to keep it professionally concise.

Our first thought was to pick one of the millions of treasured memories or traits of our mother who had recently passed away from cancer. The memory of her laugh is what immediately entered my mind. She had an infectious laugh that would force even the most depressed human being to a long, uncontrollable giggle and forget what initiated my mom’s laughter in the first place. She honked. Yes, she honked, after a deep belly laugh she would be quiet for just a few seconds because she couldn’t breathe. Then following the silence would be this loud, unique honking noise as she would forcefully try to get her air back. The harder she laughed, the louder and longer the honk. Then there was the look on her face as this was all taking place. She was hysterical but at the same time embarrassed of the noises that were coming out of her face. So, after we forgot about what we were laughing about in the first place, we were always guaranteed several more minutes of laughter due to the cyclical causes of comedy. After reminiscing, laughing, and thinking about a name that can encompass all of that, we just couldn’t find something perfect enough to represent her inimitable quality.

We wanted the name of this production company to embrace all the elements of our childhood. All the elements that have gotten us to this point right now…All the good, all the bad, all the love, all the pain, the little things, the significant things, the things you never think will show up again, the feelings you never thought could surface again, the silly thoughts that at one point bothered us but now bring us warmth, all the given love that carried us to the next step, all the given love that encouraged us to the next step….
We wanted it to symbolize all the tangible or intangible possessions we have
collected through the years and the trail we leave behind each day of our life. Is that possible? How in the world can we put all that in a professionally concise corporate title?

Imagine if we could contain all those memories, emotions, scents, visuals, and even all the little “insignificant” knick-knacks that we gather throughout our life in a drawer. Imagine if we could contain all the tiny pieces of life that lead us to a new thought or an action.

Here comes the title of the production company. Scott and I spent 18 years in one house with our mom and dad. It was just the four of us. Throughout those 18 years, like everyone, each of us went through many stages, many occasions, many successes and many failures. We had a special drawer in the kitchen of our house. For most people, I think they can relate to it as a “junk drawer”… A drawer that is far from organized and is there for nothing in particular. It just accumulated things over the years. However, we did not call ours a junk drawer. Being that it was the middle of three drawers, we referred to it as the “Middle Drawer.” While the rest of the house may have been cleaned, the middle drawer was not. It just grew. It grew so much that the bottom of the drawer was bowed and items would start to stick out. It was so full that in order to open it, you would sometimes have to jiggle it or open it halfway and stick your hand in it to move some things around so it was able to open. It became known that if you couldn’t find something, the first question asked was, “Did you check the middle drawer?” Somehow, a piece of everything would end up in our middle drawer. We didn’t even know how it got there.

Some examples of the items found were, old photos, old barrettes with a little hair left in it, lost individual playing cards, travel syrup, playing cards with syrup on them, scratch pieces of paper with phone numbers on it and little doodles of pretty flowers my mom would draw, business cards, jewelry, small half eaten box of raisins, pencil with no eraser or with an eraser that would be so hard it could write itself, 3-D glasses, batteries that are stuck together, just one of a pair of knee-high stockings, a report card, sugar packets, ketchup packets, numbered birthday candles, my grandpa’s small black comb, wallet size elementary school photos, wallet size elementary school photos with drawn on make-up, a cracker jack prize, a cracker jack prize with a raisin stuck to it, individual wrapped stick of gum that would crack if you bent it, rubber bands, paperclips, pens, pens that have exploded, pens from various hotels, Star Trek action figures, a loose arm from an action figure, an old retainer, a swim cap, goggles, broken goggles, pieces of paper with my learnings of my multiple tables on it, old cassette tapes of all of our voices… the possibilities of what you could find in this drawer were endless.

Regardless of how disgustingly filthy it may sound, it became a significant piece of our lives. It became a lifelong joke yet a cherished memory. It held a piece of all of us, a piece of our everyday, time pieces… the time pieces that represent our childhood and the precious time where the four of us lived, grew, learned, and loved each other everyday. “Middle Drawer Productions” not only symbolizes a laugh, or a trait, or an experience; it symbolizes a home that filled our hearts with life and love and gave us the strength, the stability, the passion, and the irreplaceable memories that make us who we are today.