The Retelling of the Story
G brought a girlfriend to Tennessee. In an attempt to explain why George is "George" and Bird is "Bird" and why on earth there are children running through the house calling me "Aunt Fred", we end up retelling the story of how the nicknames came to be. In particular, we retell the story of how I became "Aunt Fred."
I tell her about how George was very little and how I hadn't seen him in a year. I was already at the house with LM when my sister and her family arrived. Bird was quick to come in and give me a hug, but having been so long since he had seen me, George was admittedly a little shy. He latched on to his dad and would not for the life of him come to see me and give me a long over-due hug. In an effort to get him talking and more comfortable with me, I pretend I couldn't remember his name. I start making guesses, "Is it Ben?" I asked him. "Noooo!" comes a little giggle. "Is it Sam?" I tried again. "Noooo!!" And on the game went for quite some time. Finally deciding he is never going to tell me his name, I simply declare his name MUST be George and proceed to call him that at every turn. "George, do you want some milk like Bird is having?" "George, do you want to go out on the boat?" "George, let's get your shoes on!"
Although George is now talking to me and has overcome his initial shyness, he doesn't think much of this new name but is still too stubborn to tell me his real one. He runs to his mother and tells her that I am being mean to him by calling him 'George'.
Always the teaser, I tell him and the rest of my listening audience, "And your mom, always the smart one, told you to SUCK IT UP."
George thought this new version of the story was hysterical and nearly fell off the patio furniture laughing.
I tell G's girlfriend that no, actually, George's mom explained that I was teasing him and that what he needed to do was to think of a crazy name for me and tease me back. Which is when George came bounding up the stairs and declared that I was now officially, "Aunt Fred!"
Sitting there, all together today, I looked at George and pointed out that I didn't call him some girl name and I didn't see how THIS name was at all fair, even after all these years, because it's a BOY name and surely I didn't deserve to be stuck with an ewwy gross BOY name for all of time. And as I teasingly moaned and groaned about the nickname I have always embraced from my favorite neice and nephew, George, without skipping a single beat, looked me right in the eye and said, "Aunt Fred, SUCK IT UP!"
I tell her about how George was very little and how I hadn't seen him in a year. I was already at the house with LM when my sister and her family arrived. Bird was quick to come in and give me a hug, but having been so long since he had seen me, George was admittedly a little shy. He latched on to his dad and would not for the life of him come to see me and give me a long over-due hug. In an effort to get him talking and more comfortable with me, I pretend I couldn't remember his name. I start making guesses, "Is it Ben?" I asked him. "Noooo!" comes a little giggle. "Is it Sam?" I tried again. "Noooo!!" And on the game went for quite some time. Finally deciding he is never going to tell me his name, I simply declare his name MUST be George and proceed to call him that at every turn. "George, do you want some milk like Bird is having?" "George, do you want to go out on the boat?" "George, let's get your shoes on!"
Although George is now talking to me and has overcome his initial shyness, he doesn't think much of this new name but is still too stubborn to tell me his real one. He runs to his mother and tells her that I am being mean to him by calling him 'George'.
Always the teaser, I tell him and the rest of my listening audience, "And your mom, always the smart one, told you to SUCK IT UP."
George thought this new version of the story was hysterical and nearly fell off the patio furniture laughing.
I tell G's girlfriend that no, actually, George's mom explained that I was teasing him and that what he needed to do was to think of a crazy name for me and tease me back. Which is when George came bounding up the stairs and declared that I was now officially, "Aunt Fred!"
Sitting there, all together today, I looked at George and pointed out that I didn't call him some girl name and I didn't see how THIS name was at all fair, even after all these years, because it's a BOY name and surely I didn't deserve to be stuck with an ewwy gross BOY name for all of time. And as I teasingly moaned and groaned about the nickname I have always embraced from my favorite neice and nephew, George, without skipping a single beat, looked me right in the eye and said, "Aunt Fred, SUCK IT UP!"
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