NICKNAMES
I know everyone had the “cutsie tutsie” nicknames when they were smaller. You know like, Susan to Suzie. Kathryn to Katie. Margret to Margie. All the kids seemed to be growing out of their nicknames by late Elementary or early Jr. High. Me? Not so much. As a matter of fact, I still go by my nickname, and so does a slew of other people I know. Let’s start at my brother, Steve. Steve Miller is his name. It so happens to be a band called The Steve Miller band. My older girls thought for the longest time, their uncle was famous. I didn’t say much, they were young, and I thought they would out grow it. BUT WAIT…that’s not the worst part. His nickname, the only name I knew was “Tiger.” When I was little all his “girlfriends” seemed to always work at the movie theater. I always remember them saying….”Oh look! That’s Tiger’s little sister.” I took it as, I was automatically in the cool club. See, he was just like his two sons. The cat’s meow, the town hunk, the heart throb. Not to mention, all my friends ALWAYS had the biggest crush on him. “Can you have Tiger come pick us up?” They would always say. Blah. Blah. Yep, I’m Tiger’s little sister…..but then the “incident” happened. It went something like this:
It was a cold, crisp autumn day. School had been in session, and I was so excited to be in 7th grade. I was at a new school, and I needed a pair of pink converse high tops. Getting my mom to buy me a pair, was a totally different story, but I got a pair. I was awesome. I was cool, and I was going to have Tiger be the first to sign them. We drove up into the driveway, and Tiger’s car was parked out front. Woooohoooo! He was home…which was a rarity. I walk into the front door and start yelling..”Tiger. Tiger? TIGER!” No answer. Weird..what the heck? I go downstairs, and he is on the couch watching a movie with a friend who was a girl. (NOT his girlfriend, LJ) When I got to the bottom of the stairs I said…”Tiger! Will you sign my new shoes?” No answer. I clearly knew he heard me. He was looking right at me. “Tiger? Will you sign my shoes? My new PINK high top converse.” At this point he was clearly aggravated. He said..”Go get me a pen.” It was short, it was sweet, and it was in a tone I didn’t like. I got the pen. He signed my shoes. The End.
Haha. That’s not the end. That evening after he took his friend home, he had a talk with my Mom. I just happened to be there. He explained to us, that his name is Steve. We can now call him Steve. Funny part of the story? His friend thought I was calling for our pet cat….who’s name was Tiger. HAHAHA! We didn’t have any pets. I don’t ever remember having a cat, and it wasn’t until I was 16 my Dad adopted a dog. Anyhow, he continued to explain how embarrassed he was that we called him Tiger in front of his friend. Did we stop? You bet! You don’t want the wrath of Steve….trust me. I’ve had it more than once. Silly me, I must have not learned the first dozen times. Thanks for not killing me when I was a teenager, and doing my genealogy…like Dad said he wanted to do. I owe ya one! Here it is! 🙂
I could go on and on about our family’s silly nicknames. What is your most embarrassing nickname incident? Would you ever go back to your early childhood nickname?
