Name Calling

There was 12 kids, but Casey and Larry came after Missy and Fawn was out of the house. And Larry actually came after I was out of the house. So there was 10 kids when I was growing up. And we would never call each other our real names, we would call each other our mean names. And I remember my mom went off one day sayin’, “Don’t any of you kids know your own G– Damn name?!” Because she was hearin’ this all the time it was frustrating her and making her mad because no one use their real name.

It was to be mean but it didn’t hurt after a while, we was just used to it. And like you know anyone else could call you and it wouldn’t bother you. Actually it would be that no one really knew that name except people in the family – ‘cept us. I use those names today talking to my brothers and sisters and there’s still some agitation there, but then we laugh it off. It’s just jokingly fun and no one else would know what that meant so we just laugh about it now. I always know if I’m saying it, it’s to be mischievous.

And then I can remember my mom whenever she would call one of our names she’d go off the list with all the kids standing in front of her and she call everybody else’s name except the kids standing in front of her.

When I was a kid I was called “Bush”, but it was after the name “Rosie La Bush”. I think she was something in a movie but the “Bush” part stuck. And then I was also called “sghett head” after spaghetti. My brothers and sisters gave me that name to be mean – downright meanness. But all of us had names. Fawn was named “Cow”, Missy was named “Moose” and “Maggot”. Billy was “Bill Cox”, the name came from a bad story. It was Christmas time and Billy got up in his underwear, and mom said, “Billy, take that sock out of your underwear.” And Billy said “Mom, it ain’t no sock.” And that’s how he got the name Bill Cox. Tommy’s name was “Dirt” or “Dirt Ball”, because he was always so dirty, he wouldn’t take a bath. He was always playing in the dirt; we had a sandbox. His name was also “The San Francisco Treat,” and we would sing it to him and that would make him so mad. It would make him mad because we was being mean to him. It was a stupid song. All we would have to do is start singing that song and he would get livid. Cory’s name was “Fatso” and NYB – New York Blimp. And Lisa’s name was “Bucky Beaver” because she had buck teeth when we was growing up. We used ta call her “Bucky”.

And Mandy’s was “pee-the-bed-Manka” because she used to pee the bed when she was growing up. It was either “pee-the-bed-Manka” or Rita Rollins. Rita Rollins was a lady that lived up by my grandpa’s and my aunts. They was really dirty people, so we’d make fun of her by calling her Rita. I don’t know how that’s stuck but it did. We used to sing that to her “Rita-Rita-Rita!” And there was my brother Bobby, we used to call him “Oye”. There was a commercial with the energy bunny, and there was a thing where he would go “Oye”, and we would go to him – I don’t know how it stuck – and we would say to him “shut up “Oye,” and he would know we were making fun of him. I don’t know how that one stuck but it did. He couldn’t see real good so when he would be arguing with you, like talking to you he’d be looking at the ceiling. And we’d be like “Bobby, over a here!” And then we would say to him, “Oye, Oye,” and he would get lividly mad! Bobby had a lot of energy like them kids that are ADD. He was kinda like that off the wall. I think that’s why he got the name “Oye,” like the energy bunny. We would tell him “shut up Oye.” It was so funny to have him arguing with you and he’d be looking up here, or at the ceiling and we would say “down here Bobby”. Then there was Lee’s name, it was “Sherry Berry Muffin Berry” because mom thought he was a girl all the way up until he was born and she had the name Sherry for him. And we’d call him Sherry to make him mad. And we made a little song “Sherry Berry Muffin Berry”. And it would make him mad because we would make him think he was supposed to be a girl just to be mean.

Them was good times, and I would’ve missed them times if I hadn’t been with my mom. So I’m glad of that part. I would never had any of those memories if I hadn’t been stolen. And I hope that it doesn’t take a funeral for all of us to decide that them was good times, you know. For us to get together and act like a family, or have a family reunion or anything like that. We could put our differences aside and say “we’re family”. We was all raised together so that’s what makes a difference. It doesn’t matter how many dads we had, it was all one mom. And then with Misty and fawn, it was their dad that helped raise us. We was all united. He was a good man too. I do know who picked who, but she picked the right man for helping her to raise her children – and loved us just like his own. That’s rare these days. He had a great mother and dad too, our step grandparents, you’d never known it was our step grandparents. His dad treated us all equally the same. I mean to him, we was his. It was a good thing, it was a wonderful thing. He took us fishing, and to Bean Dinners, and berry picking and swimin’ and all kinds of things. I learned a lot from him. We went out at night catchin’ Nightcrawlers. Taught us stuff about the garden. Yeah, good times.

Have you never been to a Bean Dinner? They would make up a great big batch of beans, but there would also be like a place for music playin’, and they would have a spiel or a trade where they’d be selling it – it was a great big gathering. You’d pay like a buck 25 and get cornbread and beans and you get to mix with all these different kind of people. It was usually more of a backwoods thing, and the thing that they would sell would be something that they was handmade – quilts or music or pies – something homemade – not something made off a assembly line. Had to be some kind of creative thought.

And Nightcrawlers. We would wear little lamps on our heads like coal miners and had a little candle and you would light it, and you wear on your head, and the ground would be wet, and you’d stick your thumb in where they went – the Nightcrawlers – and you’d pull them up and put them in a pale, and you do that all night long. And he had a great big thing that he kept full of Nightcrawlers to go fishing with. Nightcrawlers are worms. That’s what we call them, Nightcrawlers. I think he kept them in horse maneuer and that’s what would keep them alive and they would multiply, and they was in this great big huge box thing in the back of this building. And any time we’d want to go fishin’ we just go in there and grab some out and they’d multiply and we just always had worms. He did a lot of fishin’. Instead of going to buy them at the bait store he’d just have ‘em there and ready. There was a creek behind our house. And I fished with him. It was engraved in me at a young age to go fishin’. Yeah, good times.