Nicknames

[merciful-evans]

8 hours ago, Retired said:

I used to watch Bewitched all the time back in the days. Darren, called his wife Sam for short. So I did the same and call Debbie Deb. Her real name is Debra though. 

 

Maybe my best off the cuff remark was when someone explained to me that a cross between a zebra and a donkey was called a zonkey. I had to ask 'then where do all the Debras come from?'

[Retired]

9 hours ago, merciful-evans said:

 

Maybe my best off the cuff remark was when someone explained to me that a cross between a zebra and a donkey was called a zonkey. I had to ask 'then where do all the Debras come from?'

When Deb was a little girl and  her mom scolded her she called her Deborah. She hated that. Haha. 

[sparquelito]

24 minutes ago, Retired said:

Re; Floyd being Dad's name

Our father was Floyd Sparkman Jr, and his father was Floyd the senior.
Pop, in his family, grew up 'Buddy', to keep this straight around the house.

My younger brother and lifelong musical partner was christened,  in February of 1961, Floyd Stacey Sparkman.
To keep things less confusing, he was always known as Stacey, and never Floyd.
So he grew up Stacey.

Funny though, over the decades, even though he's Stacey, his closest buddies and band-mates invariably end up referring to him as Floyd.  Just to get a rise out of him at first, and then as an affectionate matter of habit.

Anytime I would go looking for him at some bar gig or at work at the hangar, it went like this.

Me: Hi guys.

Them: Hey, Spark.  You looking for Floyd?  He's out dicking-off somewhere.

😜

 

[gearbasher]

I've had more nicknames than I, currently, have hair on my head.

As a kid:

Yosel: (basically Yiddish for Joseph) It's what my father called me. BTW: He was Italian and Catholic. But, growing up on the Lower East Side in the '30s & 40s, he picked up a lot of Yiddish words.

Josh: What my older brother called me. I have no idea why.

Johnny Pump: (Local slang for a fire hydrant) It's what the neighborhood bullies called me, because my ears stick out some.

Schools days:

Ears: see Johnny Pump

Spike: I played more than my fair share of Volleyball.

Adult life:

Flaco: What the Hispanic guys at work called me, because I'm skinny.

My Bicycling nicknames:

Ponytail: I had hair down to my waist and rode with it in a ponytail.

Fast Joe: There were three Joes in our group. Me aka "Fast Joe", "Choose To Go Slow Joe" and "Joey Good Looking".

Postal Joe: I worked for the USPS

Cipro Joe: There was a good chance I was exposed to Anthrax on the job and they made me take Ciprofloxacin for a couple of weeks.

Postal: What I'm currently called.

 

Edited February 10 by gearbasher

[Retired]

3 hours ago, sparquelito said:

Our father was Floyd Sparkman Jr, and his father was Floyd the senior.
Pop, in his family, grew up 'Buddy', to keep this straight around the house.

My younger brother and lifelong musical partner was christened,  in February of 1961, Floyd Stacey Sparkman.
To keep things less confusing, he was always known as Stacey, and never Floyd.
So he grew up Stacey.

Funny though, over the decades, even though he's Stacey, his closest buddies and band-mates invariably end up referring to him as Floyd.  Just to get a rise out of him at first, and then as an affectionate matter of habit.

Anytime I would go looking for him at some bar gig or at work at the hangar, it went like this.

Me: Hi guys.

Them: Hey, Spark.  You looking for Floyd?  He's out dicking-off somewhere.

😜

 

I was forced to go by my real name in school. Dad and had the exact same names. Floyd Delton Hanslip. He was sr and I was jr. Then later in life I found out he was married to another woman before my mother. He named his first son after him also so there were 3 Floyd's and One Sr and two Jr's. So I hated my name and always went by the nick name my mother gave me from birth.  BUTCH. 

[sparquelito]

8 hours ago, Retired said:

I was forced to go by my real name in school. Dad and had the exact same names. Floyd Delton Hanslip. He was sr and I was jr. Then later in life I found out he was married to another woman before my mother. He named his first son after him also so there were 3 Floyd's and One Sr and two Jr's. So I hated my name and always went by the nick name my mother gave me from birth.  BUTCH. 

WOW.

That is incredible hubris, naming both of you after himself.

Just curious, and you don't have to answer of course, but how did you get along with your dad over the years?

🤨

[B.T.]

In high school it was Tex.
 Always wore pointy - high cowboy boots. 
Still prefer them over almost anything else  but haven’t been called Tex in years! 
Boring - I know! 

[Retired]

On 2/9/2024 at 4:49 PM, sparquelito said:

Our father was Floyd Sparkman Jr, and his father was Floyd the senior.
Pop, in his family, grew up 'Buddy', to keep this straight around the house.

My younger brother and lifelong musical partner was christened,  in February of 1961, Floyd Stacey Sparkman.
To keep things less confusing, he was always known as Stacey, and never Floyd.
So he grew up Stacey.

Funny though, over the decades, even though he's Stacey, his closest buddies and band-mates invariably end up referring to him as Floyd.  Just to get a rise out of him at first, and then as an affectionate matter of habit.

Anytime I would go looking for him at some bar gig or at work at the hangar, it went like this.

Me: Hi guys.

Them: Hey, Spark.  You looking for Floyd?  He's out dicking-off somewhere.

😜

 

When dad was alive, our names were always confused. Even after I was married. I told him a few times I was going to have it changed to Butch, which is my nick name.  That ticked him off. 

[Retired]

On 2/10/2024 at 4:30 AM, sparquelito said:

WOW.

That is incredible hubris, naming both of you after himself.

Just curious, and you don't have to answer of course, but how did you get along with your dad over the years?

🤨

Did I answer this Sparky? Let's just say I liked dad and we spent time together a lot. But I never wanted to be like him. He was cruel, Had a very bad temper. As a toddler he beat my mom. He cussed out her and my two sisters a lot but not me as he loved me as the only son. He was extremely prejudiced. I didn't like anything about him except he was a good artist and taught me to draw in the 2nd grade. I took art all through school winning many art fairs. I won a scholarship in High School for Art. I did many paintings and drawings for the guys at BNSF RR. Even retirement paintings for them. Dad and I used to have contests together to see who was the better artist. He always beat and mom was our judge. Till I became a teen around 13 and I started beating him every time. Then he quit doing it. I've done Horses all the time as a youth. Till in high school, I had a art teacher who refused to give me an A if I did a horse. So I started to do other stuff and got straight A's. Today I do Scenery, People, Dogs, Mostly Wild Life. and Plaines, Trains, Cars. I love doing Race cars. I used to race cars through the quarter mile. 

[sparquelito]

9 hours ago, Retired said:

Did I answer this Sparky? Let's just say I liked dad and we spent time together a lot. But I never wanted to be like him. He was cruel, Had a very bad temper. As a toddler he beat my mom. He cussed out her and my two sisters a lot but not me as he loved me as the only son. He was extremely prejudiced. I didn't like anything about him except he was a good artist and taught me to draw in the 2nd grade. I took art all through school winning many art fairs. I won a scholarship in High School for Art. I did many paintings and drawings for the guys at BNSF RR. Even retirement paintings for them. Dad and I used to have contests together to see who was the better artist. He always beat and mom was our judge. Till I became a teen around 13 and I started beating him every time. Then he quit doing it. I've done Horses all the time as a youth. Till in high school, I had a art teacher who refused to give me an A if I did a horse. So I started to do other stuff and got straight A's. Today I do Scenery, People, Dogs, Mostly Wild Life. and Plaines, Trains, Cars. I love doing Race cars. I used to race cars through the quarter mile. 

If I had a horse, I would want you to paint him, Butch.

🙂

[Retired]

14 hours ago, sparquelito said:

If I had a horse, I would want you to paint him, Butch.

🙂

LOL. It used to embarrass me when I did them. The other students looked at my painting and said, "Oh Mrs. Whatever her name was, "He's doing another one! They all loved my horses. I always wanted one but that never happened.  I can tell you the stories. I won a scholarship but turned it down for drag racing in the NHRA. Had 3 different race cars. I even did the letters on 2 of them. 

[Retired]

14 hours ago, sparquelito said:

If I had a horse, I would want you to paint him, Butch.

🙂

Did I tell you in grade school, I had a teacher that wanted me to do a pencil sketch of a battle scene against a castle and ships with cannon balls? She made me stay in recess everyday to work on it. One day I was looking out seeing the kids play and she came buy and grabbed it and tore it up and said, Go out and play.  That sort of bothered me with her after that. Then I did pottery in Middle school and the teacher forgot to turn the kiln off after school. Everything in that kiln blew up and had a huge mess in it except my vase I did. All the glaze ran off and left an old antique looking vase from historic days. I had some chips from those explosions. She wanted to buy it real bad. So her and my mom did a bidding war to see who wanted it more.  Eventually, My mom said, "If she wants it that bad, let her have it.