Do you now or have you ever had a nickname?
(It's OK if you were called "Stinky" in grammar school)
Bertha
That's what the father in law calls my mother in law. If I called my fiance that I'd be sleeping in the truck.?ÿ
About 50 years ago I had long hair and a beard.?ÿ My father said I looked like a "Wooly Booger" and it stuck for years.?ÿ Nephew and nieces called me "Uncle Booger".
Andy
Even though it's got zero connection to my name, I've been called "Jake" by only my closest family members, and the friends that were around me when they called me "Jake". Serves as a contextual value of how long you've known me and how well.
?ÿ
I have a similar circumstance with people who knew me between age 18 and about age 32.?ÿ My nephews know me as Uncle XXXX.?ÿ Not 4 X of course but a shortened form of my name.?ÿ The one nephew I see regularly simply calls me by my name now.?ÿ So, people who knew me primarily during that time frame use the XXXX as that's what they heard being used.
Those from my school days either call me by my name or a different shortened form or Bertha.?ÿ Old guy I was hauling hay for came along as I was scrubbing up my entire upper half?ÿ by the yard hydrant.?ÿ He slapped my fat belly and said, "Whattaya gonna name it when it's born?"?ÿ For some reason I said Bertha and the name stuck for the next year with my buddies.
Some people are nuts.?ÿ I know two men who actually slept with their mothers-in-law AND got caught by their wives.?ÿ That was the end of one marriage.?ÿ Unbelievably, the other couple is still married after nearly 20 years.
I know a family where the father would give each newborn a nickname.?ÿ Burr, Bugs, Sal, Skeet, Tues, Dee.?ÿ John, Lawrence, Clair, Raymond, Jean and Leslie David.?ÿ There were three more whose nickname I never learned.
Bertha
That's one of the Butt sisters. ?????ÿ
Too many to count but Squirl has outlast all the others.
The story goes:
My dad was a mechanic and I was his "gopher" (I would "go for" this and that between the house and the garage). My dad being who he is couldn't go with the norm "gopher" so he started calling me squirrel, then of course we had to spell it differently and it stuck. I've had this nickname since I was a little kid and all through high school.
Granted, the most common nickname for me is just my last name.
I guess "hey you" wouldn't qualify but that's the only name the PE coaches (what are they?) knew when I was in high shool. Occasionally they would grunt out something like "run laps" or other silly nonsense like that. ?????ÿ
A good friend is named Martin Paul K____ but his dad always called him Pete and that's what most people call him today.
I can't think of many nicknames other than shortened forms that are used among my current aquaintenances.?ÿ Seems like that used to be more common.
Most of the things I've been called can't be said here.
I've really had many nicknames through the years. Being a Jr., everyone called dad Dick, he would even introduce himself that way, I was Richy during my younger days, which I couldn't wait try to change almost as soon as the TV character "Richey Cunningham" became popular, so I tried to get people to call me Rich.
For the longest time I was thin and not very tall, then the "evil teen" years struck and I grew so fast that I lack all coordination, yes I was a spaz. Part of this and just being a goofball one of the guys on dads crew decided that I should be called "zero" after the Beetle Bailey character, that branched out into our circle of friends due to my brothers and some other friends that worked for dad for a couple of summers, that eventually went away.
Of course a name like Germiller can lead to all sorts of names, mostly Germkiller, through grade school. But we were all Germkiller at some point, even my daughter. Guys in the Army started to just call me "Germy" and last but not least when SWMBO was carrying our son less than six months after our daughter was born (15 months apart) one of my Jaycee friends started referring to me as "Spermy Germy". (not sure if it's a good idea to tell this bunch that one, so OK have at it)?ÿ
I can remember in my freshman year of high school my basketball coach called me Nick.?ÿ He intended it as a slam.?ÿ He was making reference to Nick Pino who played for KSU, was over seven feet tall, but somewhat clumsy looking on the court.
A search on Wikipedia indicates Nick Pino was a tremendous high school player in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
As a sophomore I was on a ladder in the HS gymnasium helping the coach changing light bulbs.?ÿ I reached out too far, slipped and fell directly on top of the coach.?ÿ It knocked the wind out of him.
After that (and forever more) he christened me with the nickname "Medicine Ball".
