E-dawg? -

Occasionally something happens that triggers our recollection of the past or certain people or events. One such recollection happened to me the other night. My employer under the name of community service annually finds a house that need to be painted. The employees spend the week doing what ever needs to be done to prepare, paint and clean up the house and yard. It’s a great event and over the years has helped a lot of people. When it’s my turn to go I usually make it a family affair by taking the kids, the closer their ages to the teenage years the more distress it involves. Other employees also bring family members to participate. One employee’s spouse happens to be a teacher at the local High School where my two teenagers attend. Instantly upon their arrival my son, the most productive and less distressed about their service, yelled E-dawg what’s happening. E-dawg, that doesn’t seem to be a flattering thing to call your teacher. Now I already knew that this was one of my son’s favorite teachers. His last name started with an “E’ and it was said with excitement and an enduring tone. This helped me to understand it wasn’t showing disrespect or malice. This made me think of what we use to call our teachers or people of authority when I was his age. My second grade teacher was Mrs. Tout and we called her trout – pretty original for a bunch of seven year olds. But I don’t remember saying it too her face. She was ancient, about forty and would have had a coronary then I would have had some suppressed feeling because I killed my teacher. There was a police officer in town that had the most awesome flat-top and looked just like one of our favorite cartoon characters, the only difference is that his wife wasn’t named Wilma and I don’t think he had a daughter named Pebbles. That name was said out load all the time, but normally only after he turned his back and there were a lot of people so he didn’t know who said it. He hated to be called his nickname and every kid in town knew it. Some of these phrases or names make it easy to see why they were being used others are a little harder to understand. One of our teachers and coach was nicknamed sweat hog – I don’t know when it started and I know he didn’t like it. I’ve known him for more than thirty years and have never seen him sweat more than normal or smelled any kind of body odor. He’s a wonderful kind man and what ever started it probably wasn’t fair, but for some reason it stuck. Another was called “Wild Bill,” now deep down I think this one was all right and he seemed to not let it bug him. As a coach he got excited on occasions and earned the name, but I never saw him get out of control. One thing I knew about him that most didn’t was that he was a WWII hero and a College Football star. He always took time to pull me aside and help me when he thought I needed it. That friendship and respect continued every time I saw him for years to come. It seems that there are two reasons those in authority get nicknames or are called curtain things. First, they’ve rubbed people the wrong way or made a mistake. Second it is a term of endearment and shows that they think you’re all right. E-dawg, I don’t know how flattering that is, but you’re definitely in the latter category.