I miss nicknames.

When I was a kid… we had nicknames for everyone. Well… just about. It was really a term of endearment… no matter how rotten the nickname.

Stinky Atherton is the first one that comes to mind. Not the greatest epithet.  But we all liked Stinky.

In my little circle of friends… I was Krony.  I guess I’ve kinda’ held on to that one a little.  But there was Krony, Tuck, Strit, Mick…. and more. Sometimes it would just be there person’s last name… like Snyder, or Quinn. It just doesn’t seem like we used our first names all that much.

Yep. I loved nicknames.

My family called me Cec growing up… pronounced “cease”…. because of my middle name.

I was the youngest of seven kids. When we’d get a neighborhood game of touch football going in the street… things would get confusing.  All my brothers’ and sisters’ friends called them “Krony” too.  So there was a lot of “Hey Krony… throw it over here.”   And on.

But nicknames were fun.  It perpetuated a sense of camaraderie….. the feeling that there was an “inside joke” or a secret handshake.

Jim Bullen Sr., (Mary’s dad….I think he was the senior)… was the master of nicknames. I think he mostly did it because he had a hard time remembering people’s real names. Bonzo. Bongos. Pal. Buddy. Chumbo. You name it… he might call you by it….

Which brings to mind another thing.  How come when somebody is the ‘the senior’… no one uses the nickname “Senior”…..  but if you are the first born ‘junior’… people WILL call you “Junior”??

I see people on Facebook who had nicknames their whole lives… but now they go by their more refined birth names. I know at least 3 Missy’s from childhood…. who are now… Melissa.

I had a few different nicknames throughout my life… like… Bullseye, Ohio, Copper, and Sheriff. Krony was persistent through the years.

But my point is… as adults… we need to bring the nickname back. I think it would keep us less serious about everything. People get too stressed these days.

Like… if you are eating out… and the waitress is terrible…. I think it is easier to be upset with her if her name tag says “Debbie”… than if it  said….. maybe….. “Skippy”. Who could be ticked off with someone named Skippy?

I would label some of my current friends with the following titles… in no particular order…. Plucky, Finster, Thumbs, Slowboat, Toto, Volley, Buzz, Neon, Nails… oh….. just a few.

Yep… the grand old NICKNAME.   Let’s bring ’em back.

But don’t call us….. we’ll call you.

Oh, and I just remembered this. I was on the girls’ swim team growing up. One year we got a new coach who acted like she knew everything. Her name was Claire Buoyant.

Most of the time… she just liked to float around the pool.  So everybody called her Bob.