As I sat in a pew near the back of St Luke’s church during the funeral of the woman who served as one of my many mothers when I was a child, I could only laugh at the neighborhood guys sitting socially distanced near me as we laughed, reminisced, and caught up with each other’s lives since we were last together. 

It’s been said that you can’t make up your own nickname and part of our hilarious chat was attempting to remember who came up with each other’s nicknames. 

All of my childhood friends had a nickname or two. Some of those names are so pervasive that fifty years later we, and everyone else, still call us by those names to the point that we may be the only people who know each other’s real names. 

When my oldest daughter comes through Chester, she laughs out loud whenever someone hollers to me by my nickname, Stuffy. She always teases me with her imitation of one of my friends who has a deep raspy nasal voice with her version of – ‘Yo, Stuff!’ It so great to be somewhere outside of Chester and hear someone call me by my nickname. Without even looking, I immediately know that person knows me from Chester. 

As we sat masked up between two pews separated by an empty pew and 6-feet from each other on the same pew, we definitely laughed out loud too much during the funeral acting like little boys again gathered in the sitting park in our Norris Park neighborhood where they currently dump bulk trash now. The four of us, Stuffy, Blass, Wid (or Spoon), and Earth probably would have been escorted out the church if there were ushers present. 

I came to the game with a nickname, as my mom says I was a fat baby that always stuffed my face – hence, the nickname Stuffy. Earth, was named by Blass because he said his head was as big as the earth. Wid got his name thanks to his big head being out of proportion to his childhood body. Wid is short for Widdle Head because when he walked it always seemed to wobble. How widdle and wobble go together, I don’t know, but the nature of nickname creation is all about imagination, not perfection. Blass got his name because his favorite designer as a kid was Bill Blass. We also had neighborhood playmates named Rub, because he looked like Barney Rubble, and Hum, because we thought he was too dumb to talk and always hummed. Of course, he would be the one to end up with a law degree. 

What a great reunion of old friends who came together for Keddy’s (Kedrick) mom’s funeral. During the remarks and eulogy, both speakers made mention of how Keddy’s mom gave all her grandchildren nicknames. Even as a kid, I was good friends with the eulogist, Danita, who we all called either Buffy, Buffalo, or Monster. She explained that her grandma gave her the Monster moniker and I imagine Buffy was short for Buffalo – or the the other way around. 

Nicknames are fun and we had a great time with each other reminiscing on their origin, meaning, and stick-to-it-tiveness.