My nickname was "Parrot" and its origin was traced back to when I played pool as a teenager in Bill Shirley's pool hall on south main street. It seems that whenever I would lose a game I would rant and rave and utter profanity. Gail Cullen, who was the most prolific coiner of nicknames, called me the profane parrot. From there it was shortened to "Parrot". I guess you could say my nickname had an ignominious origin. To this day my old friends still refer to me as "Parrot".

Then there was James Weistart who was called "Penquin" because of his shuffle or gait that looked like a penquin when he walked. A couple of kids in high school had the nickname "Squirrel" because of their squirrelly antics. Many times nicknames were given with opposite meanings to parody a person's antics. "Lightning" Ed Persic was given his nickname because of his slow gait while walking.

Let it be known that the bearer of a nickname was never given an option of approval or acceptance. In fact, if a person objected too much to a nickname that was one way of making sure that the nickname stuck.

Conversely, wanting to bestow upon yourself a nickname was a sure way of making sure that the nickname would not stick. Nicknames could only be bestowed by the herd and not by the individual himself. This ties in with the fact that in my high school days having a nickname was a sign of acceptance within the group. Therefore, if you had no nickname it was a cruel reminder that you really didn't belong to the group. There was one person I remember who didn't have a nickname. He kept making casual suggestions for an appropriate nickname for himself. But his plea fell upon deaf ears because deep down everyone really resented his arrogance.

In short, having a nickname was usually a term of endearment. It meant you belonged to the group. Because many of the nicknames were unflattering and sometimes ridiculous it meant that the bearer of the nickname is humble enough to accept the nickname and it kept the person's ego at a level with everyone else. In other words, nicknames were the great equalizer.

The most unflattering situation of all was giving a person a nickname behind his back but never uttering it in his presence. In most cases, these were nicknames that were derogatory and assigned to a person who was either disliked or was so odd that it was irresistable to coin a humbling nickname for the person. Another reason was because the person had a position of power and this was a way of defying that power without getting hurt. The most obvious example of the last scenario was the nickname we gave to an educator in our high school. We called him "Creep" behind his back because he had a habit of creeping up on some poor unspecting student in the process of wrongdoing and apprehending the hapless individual in the act. Prof Schneider, who was the high school superintendent in the 40's, was called "Snake" behind his back.

Sometimes a nickname was based on a derivation of a person's name. For example, Dennis Quiram was called "Queer" even though he wasn't. His name just fit the nickname.

Many of the nicknames in Minonk were given to families. For example, anyone with the last name of Ketchmark was often referred to as "Ketchy". Years ago anyone with my family name of Uphoff was referred to as "Uppy". And everyone knows that anyone named Sullivan is referred to as "Sully".

Nicknames were also common in Minonk in the old days and they certainly weren't subjected to political correctness. For example, my old neighbor Bill Stokowski was called "Dago" even though he was of polish origin, not Italian. Mario Cavalco was called "Charlie Chaplin" because he looked and walked like Charlie Chaplin. Most people didn't even know his real name. My Uncle Bill VonBehren knew a miner who went by the name of "Sleeping Jesus".

One of the more ridiculous nicknames was "Catslinger" Greskoviak. Supposedly, he received that nickname when he was digging in a ditch and someone slung a cat onto the back of a cow and the cow became startled and jumped down in the ditch with Greskoviak.

The family with the most nicknames in Minonk was probably the DeFreese family. Mae Copp, whose father was Herman DeFreese, said that her father got his nickname "Coon" from a minstrel show he was in at the old Pickard building in the early 1900's. His brother wore patches in the same play and his nickname was "Patches" for the rest of his life. The other two DeFreese brothers had nicknames of "Mush" and "Happy". "Happy" DeFreese had a son who was given "Happy" as his real name.

Nicknames are seldom given to children by their parents. If they are, the kid usually resented it. I knew a woman who called her son "Cubby". I thought of the obstacles this poor kid had to face in life with such a cutsy name. I wonder if I would hire a guy named "Cubby". Thankfully, my parents didn't give me a nickname, although my mother would address me at times by something other than my name. My friend Judy and I were discussing the other day the fact that both of our parents referred to us as "Honyaks" when we were causing them discomfort. I always wondered what a "Honyak" was and where the term came from? I am sure it was not a term of endearment.