Sandy Supposes....

Ugly

May 23rd Prompt: Write abour nicknames. What nicknames do you have for people in your life? What nicknames do others use to refer to you? Do any of these names have an interesting story for how they came to be?

         

         

         

         Ah, nicknames. I'm the eldest of four. My brother is closest to me in age and he loved to refer to me as "Ug" short for Ugly. With three sisters perhaps he needed to label us. Who knows.

         He and I bestowed a nickname upon our youngest sister. Christened with a name our Nanny considered controversial, Sherry didn't stand a chance. I still laugh at Nan's response.

         "No granddaughter of mine is going to be named after a liquor."

         Not that we agreed, or cared. We decided Sherry should be 'Ralph'. Our reasoning remains a little fuzzy. In our defence, she did sorta resemble a boy with her short blonde hair and had she only been another boy we would've been a family with two of each. I believe we considered Ralph to be the worst boy's name, one not assigned to anyone we knew. We liked the outrageousness of a female sibling named Ralph.

         Yes, we realized that 'ralph' is slang for vomit, but that didn't figure in our choice. Once we used it, it stuck.

         One day Ralph met a young man dubbed Nobby by his siblings. He in turn introduced his sisters as Tweet and Head. Our baby sister had been accepted by people who appreciated nicknames. The official wedding licence lists their names as Sherry and Terry. Weird, they had rhyming monikers. Did I mention my father's name is Jerry?

         This lovely couple created a daughter whom they nicknamed "Bumpies.' As an infant she never did crawl. She bumped along on her butt. Frequently, she struck her little head and erupted in bumps as evidence.

         Other than with my 'Ralph', I've never been keen on nicknames. Sure,I'll admit I played around with my kids names. My eldest is Carrie. I assumed I'd chosen her named because one, I liked it, and, two, it had been my great-grandmother's name. As she progressed to the walking and talking stage, I wondered if I had been intuitively aware of her non-stop energy. I joked she 'carried on' and later I referenced the British Carry-On comedies.Her brother named her 'Rie Rie.' All the relatives adopted this.

         My mother-in-law insisted upon calling my son 'Chrissy' and I hated this. It sounded girly to me and he had the perfect name already, Christopher. Although he wanted his big sis to be 'Rie Rie', at the age of twenty-one months he pronounced his newborn sister's name correctly as Danielle.

         When they were in elementary school, I taught my three a bit of French. Danielle loved being Mademoiselle Danielle Rachel(le) Mozzarella.

         During her teenage years, Mademoiselle knew that her father's shop employee's had a nickname they'd secretly given her. She had a habit of speaking her mind and appearing to be assertive. The guys would witness her striding into the garage and demanding things. She expected her father to address her needs as soon as possible. Because of this she became known as 'Mimi', or more like 'Me Me.'

         Mimi and Rie Rie tease their only brother by calling him 'Chris Crash.' He does have a reputation as an accident magnet and currently is winning in the most-ambulance- rides and most stitches / fractures categories.

         The word crash is familiar. Those shop employees I mentioned thought it funny to refer to me as 'crash test dummy.' While they toiled in a vehicle restoration business they did not get to know me because I brought them what I dubbed the 'make work projects.' In other words, no, I did not crash my car...often. I too weathered more than my fair share of accidents in which I experienced falls. They suggested I seek employment as a crash test dummy and at least get paid for my incidents.

         From time to time, I meet a child who makes the connection between my name and a common substance they recognize. More than once I've heard, "Do you know your name could be Sandy Beach?" A few have laughed and laughed as they tell me the following. "What do you call a lion in the desert? Sandy Claws!"

         Now my hubby, Paul, remembers attempts by kids to bestow a nickname upon him and his unenthusiastic response. He did not find it funny to be called 'Pollywog.' His reaction involved a scuffle, or what some may say is fisticuffs.

         As a competitive figure skater he was known as 'Bugsy.' This derived from the first car he owned, a VW Bug.

         His more enduring nickname is 'Bondo' a compound used to patch vehicle bodies. For many years, he worked in the automotive trade. It could just as well have been 'Dusty', or 'Primer', or 'Patch.' I think a fun nickname would've been 'Weld-o' somewhat like Waldo." Where's Weld-o? Oh, look, he's the one sparking and smoking over there behind the Cadillac." The numerous burn holes in his clothing attested to his welding proclivities.