I got an interesting e-mail recently from Tommy Wallace. He thought it would be a good idea to do a "Blog" on nicknames of people from here.
He went on to mention several and emphasized that these weren't just "nicknames"...this is actually the primary name these people were known by. These nicknames might as well have gone on their birth certificates. Here's the list he furnished in his e-mail:
"Jaybird" Meredith, "Weedmonk" Arnold, "Squench-eyes" Lynch, "Toppy" Lile, "Simo" Simmons, "Clicker" Warren, "Noonie" Foster, "Ching-Ching" Noffsinger, "Corky" Withrow, "D.D." Withrow, "Ro-Ro" Williams, "B.B." Williams, "Jake" Myers, "Punkin’" Brewer, "Bubba" Sweatt, "Duck" Swann, "Habo" Tatum, "Mush" Rowe, "B.O." Keown, "Birdie" White, "Horse" Vincent, "Jasper" Thomas (Ronald Ray), "Greenie" Greenwood (both Bill & David), "Geeto" Gentry (Both Darrel & Billy), "Head Man" Higgs, just to name a few. He left out "Wah Wah" Wallace.
Most of these names have a story behind them. Some of the stories I know and some are self-explanatory, but still others remain a mystery.
I do know why "Bubba" Sweatt is called that because I'm the one who named him that. I was unable to pronounce the word "Brother" when we were little so I made it "Bubba" which was shortened to "Bub" a few years later. He retaliated by nicknaming me "Yay" (neither He nor I have any idea where he came up with that name) but to this day he refers to me as "Yay!" I remember when we were both pretty young and were in the boy scouts, our dues included a subscription to Boy's Life Magazine (not to be confused with "Men's Life" magazine which is a whole lot dirtier). The Scoutmaster asked him his full name (which, incidentally is William Joseph Sweatt). His answer was Joseph Bubba Sweatt and that's the name the magazine was sent to. He actually thought it was his given name.
Many of you will remember my aunt (My Mother's younger sister) Ruby Lee Ellis. Ruby worked as a clerk at the Muhlenberg County Health Department (even when it was in the former City Building) and she always assisted Edna Batsel when giving "shots" at school.
One day Ruby was at work when a lady came in with her son to get a smallpox vacination. Ruby asked her for a copy of the child's birth certificate, which was still in a manila envelope. Ruby pulled the document out of the envelope and started filling out information from it onto the child's immunization record. "That's an unusual name your child has," she said, "is it biblical?" "I suppose it is," the Mother went on to say, "Michael was an archangel." "Michael?" asked Ruby, "Your baby's name isn't Michael...it's Nucgaek!"
"I guess I know my own child's name" exclaimed the woman, "it's Michael." Ruby stepped up to the counter and showed her the birth certificate which she apparently hadn't read in the six years of this kid's life. There, as plain as day, on the offcial Kentucky Birth Certificate was the name "Nucgaek!" Stunned, the woman asked "How could this happen?" "I don't know," Ruby told her, "but here's the address of the people in Frankfort who can answer it and change it." The woman, still puzzled, left. After she left, Ruby had a hunch. She sat down at her typewriter and using the home keys (ASDFJKL;) she shifted her right hand one letter to the left. She typed out "Michael" and sure enough, on the paper, the keys hammered out "Nucgaek!" Mystery solved.
I remember reading a great story in the Courier-Journal several years ago written by Joe Creason, Kentucky's favorite humorist who hailed from Benton. Joe was always in demand as a speaker at various functions and at a particular convention he shared the podium with the then President of Western Kentucky Gas Company, a gentleman named G. J. Tankensberry. Mr. Tankensberry's nickname was "Jack," so the emcee introduced him as G. J. "Jack" Tankensberry. When he finished speaking and returned to his seat beside Creason, Joe told him that his name was a "tongue twister" and he noticed the emcee had trouble pronouncing it. He told Creason it wasn't as much of a problem now as it was when he was in the service. "You see," he said, "I was in the Navy and held the commission of a Lieutenant Junior Grade or "Lieutenant J. G." as they called it in the service. Whenever I was introduced it was "Lieutenant J. G. G. J. "Jack" Tankensberry." Try saying that thirteen times without stumbling.
Modern day parents have the luxury of knowing what gender their baby will be if they choose. This gives them the better part of nine months to pick out a name. Most of them spend that long coming up with the perfect name only to have it changed when the child reaches school age.
Our oldest son, Terry was given the name "Rat" by his buddies in the first grade until about the sixth grade. This seemed OK since he hung out with "Poot," "Snort," and "Hammerhead." (Don't ask me their real names, I never knew).
I remember two names I found "cool" in college at Western. One was in my Political Science class and his name was "Brussel Sprouse,"
and there was a girl in my Physiological Hygiene class named "Georgia Tek." Of course, I'm still fascinated with names like "T-Model Ford," "Jam Up" Knight, and others where you have no idea if they have actual "given" names. These names are their legacy. My own Dad was never called anything but "Cy" for all his life and to this day I have no idea where he got it. I'm a "Jr." so his name was Hugh Wallace Sweatt, Sr.
He has a sister named "Gertie Geneva" that everybody simply knows at "Tookie!" I was an adult before I found out "Tookie" wasn't her birth name.
One of my greatest fears for a number of years was that I would be saddled with a nickname that would be in my obituary. I read one day where a gentlemen had died that was known to his friends as "Fat Pappy." This was actually the headliner name in his obituary. I can see my obituary saying Hugh "Saphead" Sweatt passed away yesterday......Yuk!
My mother liked to call me "Huey" when I was little. I guess she was fascinated with Ducks and the only two "Hueys" I can remember back then were cartoon characters. One was "Baby Huey," an overgrown duckling and the other was Donald Duck's infamous nephew, "Huey" who was the brother to "Dewey" and "Louie!" Many years later when I was working as a bank teller, Mrs. Vincent, (Willard's wife - he owned Central Pool Room), came down to the bank and to my window. It was the third of the month, known as "check day" for the social security checks that a lot of folks got in the mail on that day and the bank was full. I had been working at the bank for a short time. When she came in, she saw me and said "Oh look who's working at the bank...it's "Huey"....Little "Huey, Dewey Duckie-Poo!" You can imagine how embarrassing that was. Rab Ray was over at the window next to mine and for years he refered to me as "Duckie-Poo!" I can see that being in my obit and on my tombstone.
Remember the song popular in the 60's called "The Name Game." Man this thing was addictive (made a great "earworm"). The lady who sang it (Shirley Ellis) would take a name, any name and would use the lyrics to this song to make it rhyme. For example:
"Let's try BILL! Bill, Bill, Bo Bill, Banana Fanna Fo Fill, Fe-Fi Mo Mill....Bill! Now try SUSIE! Susie, Susie, Bo Susie, Banana Fanna Fo Fusie, Fe-Fi Mo Musie......Susie! Anyhow, you get the idea. We used to laugh at CHUCK. Chuck Chuck, Bo Chuck, Banana Fanna Fo #@*%#!,
Fe-Fi Mo Muck.....Chuck! You can fill in the word with anything you wish as long as it rhymes!
Finally, many years ago in a different life when I was selling cars, a nice gentleman brought his son up to the dealership who apparently was a "Jr.," and the man nicknamed him "June-Bug Baby Boy!" "June Bug-Baby Boy" had a trait that reminded me of a trick I had learned a long time ago at a "country cousin's" house about hypotnizing chickens. It seemed that you could catch a chicken (hen or rooster, it didn't matter), hold it's head toward the ground and proceed to make an "X" on the ground with your finger for about thirty seconds directly in front of the chicken's beak and when you release him (or her), the chicken will remain still and "stare" at the center of the "X" until you "Kick the crap out of them." "June Bug Baby Boy" had a similar characteristic in that he stared at the ground as if hypnotized and if you asked him a question, he would simply grunt "MMMP!" His Dad was buying a used car and he asked him "June Bug Baby Boy, do you like this car?" to which "June Bug Baby Boy" mustered a "MMMP!"
The Dad then said "We better ask your Mom what she thinks!" "MMMP" said "June Bug Baby Boy!" He then picked up the phone on the desk and dialed a number. When someone on the other end answered he said "Itty bitty pretty kitty".....let me speak to "Honey Bunny Sweetie Pie!"
This conversation went on for another ten minutes. I couldn't help but wonder what dinner at their house was like. "Honey Bunny Sweetie Pie, please pass the potatoes to June Bug Baby Boy and Itty Bitty Pretty Kitty!" "June Bug Baby Boy, was things good at school today?"
"MMMP!"
No comments:
Post a Comment