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What's in a name?
Sun, 06/01/2008 - 5:53pm
Being teen-aged boys, cooped up in the middle of nowhere, maybe we were a bit more cruel than other kids. Then again, maybe not. For the most part, we were well behaved and were good about obeying the rules. But, there was one thing that put us on par or above better than anyhting else: the ability to modify someone's name for a laugh.
James Dean (not the actor) was a mouthy little guy, but great at coming up with name-mased insults. He'd invent them and his roomie, Lonnie Foltz would spread the word. One of my favorites was when he turned Vakos into 'Baked-Toast'. The next day this became 'Vacuum-Hose'. Bryan, to this day, prefers Baked-Toast.
I'm not sure who came up with the moniker Lt. BOB, but the poor guy that it was assigned to suffered from it until his graduation. (It had to do with an alleged action involving an officer and his magazine. 'nuff said)
Of course we had numerous nick-names for faculty officers. As I can't be stuck now, might as well spill the beans:
Col. Pulliam was called Fozzie. I have no idea why. The man did and still does put the fear of God into me. Fozzie was a bear, but a harmless one. Col. Pulliam was a bear, but not harmless. Without raising his voice he was able to move mountains.
Col. Davis was Kermit. Great man, though. I had his World Geography class in '86 and he forced me to learn. Also, he remembered my name, which made me feel more than invisible. And the rumor was he had been a Tunnel Rat in Vietnam. We should have been more careful with our names...
CSM Pate was Snoopy. Again, not sure why. He was always nice to me.
Capt. Hardy was Shlep. The guys from the track team were pretty open about calling him this.
Reading this I have to think we were near brain-dead with some these names. Open use of them by a cadet (excepting the track team towards Capt. Hardy) would have resulted in numerous penalty tours.
Of course, whatever happened to Lt.BOB?
Thu, 06/26/2008 - 5:09pm
#1
What's in a name?
Capt. Frank Breault was "Death Breath"
CSM Pate was "Snoopy Big-Step"
Thu, 06/05/2008 - 3:44pm
#3
What's in a name?
If you have not heard tears for fear lately, you need to go back and listen....lol They have their good songs. They did the original of "Mad world" which was remade and used in a video game promo. It was hauntingly beautiful.
Other than that, the song was a perfect fit for the lyrics. in regards to a funny incident with Coach Hardy. It was not derogatory by any means, it just made light of his alleged driving style.
I am old school and I listen to that crap :lol:
Thu, 06/05/2008 - 3:24pm
#4
What's in a name?
I'm not sure which concerns me more....that you had a song about Coach Hardy, or that you listened to Tears for Fears.
Tue, 06/03/2008 - 9:32pm
#5
What's in a name?
one correction, Coach Hardy was never called that name openly. He garnered the same status as the rest of the faculty...often talked about, never heard.
Anyone remember the Tears for Fear song that was the inspiration for the song about coach Hardy? Please, out of respect and fondness, do not post the words of the song, just name the original song.
I should probably be shot for posting this one to begin with. While Captain Hardy and I never got along (I was a bit disrespectful to him in English I and it was curtains after that. For the record, I made a C+ in that class, showing that while he didn't fail me, I suffered more for that C than for any A), I had a pleasant relationship with CSM PAte, Col. Davis, and even Captain Moore (Gomez was his nick). I lived below Colonel Pulliam's radar for the most part, the exception being when Captain Hardy walked me to the good Colonel's office in '86. BUt, that aside, Please let me say that no intention of insulting these fine men was intended. I'm not quite sure what was, actually.
Probably the more fun part of the post was thinking about the heck Dean would play on us with our names. Luckily I had a boring name, but it didn't keep me from being tortured over my in-ability to march in time (amazing for a guitar player, but Jesse Waters can attest to the fact Randy Banks made me practice marching to a metronome) or any other physical imperfection I had.
I think one of the funniest things was that we accepted them as part of life and would answer to these new monikers without batting an eye. Ishmun Willimas became Ishkabiddle, Jesse was the Nose or the Nez, Schaeffer was Alfred E. Neuman, and so on. Somewhere there has to be a list of these nicknames written for posterity's sake.