The Good Ole Days

Shrode's discussion of his various nicknames have me reveling in the lost days of my youth.

I have had several nicknames in my life. It seems like the sprung out of nowhere in high school and college. The two big ones were "Sunny" in high school and "Fireball" in college. I'm not exactly sure where Fireball came from (although I do have red hair), but Sunny was due to my inability to tan. I suppose I should thank my Scottish ancestry, but my teenage tendency to wear black didn't help conceal the fact that I was paler than most of the undead.

I have been fortunate enough to be the giver of nicknames. The most successful were in my bible study senior year in college. Going into the group a couple of the guys already had nicknames. One guy had a long nearly unpronounceable and certainly unspellable polish last name. Everyone just called him by the first syllable: "Swiz." I can't take credit for that one since he was just holding it over from high school, although we did let it perpetuate through college. It made sense.

Another member of the group informed us that his nickname was El Banyo because it sounded like his last name and he once made the mistake of answering to it in Spanish class. We didn't have the heart to call him The Bathroom. We called him "Poopshoot" for a while though. His real first name was Jim and that's just too simple a moniker to forsake for Poopshoot.

One of the younger guys introduced himself as "Philip, but I guess you can call me Phil if you want." To which I (as the study leader and head instigator) responded, "Can we call you Lip?" "No!" he said with this disgusted look on his face. All of the boys looked around at each other. "Right! 'Lip' it is!" To my knowledge Philip was called Lip at least through college. Since he met his wife at school, he may be called Lip for the rest of his life. Now that's an accomplishment if I do say so myself.