Nicknames

It has been said more than once, "Who is this Joey?"

I am now about to induct you into a Reeder Family secret society known as the Reeder Family Nicknames.

It has also been noted here and here, that I rarely call my youngest brother by his real name of Jonathan. I blame my Dad for starting the nickname debaucle.

I was dubbed "Stinker" by my Father before I could roll over. I like to think that it was because I had a nack for the mischevious, but I'm afraid it was because, as the firstborn daughter, my Dad didn't quite know what to do with dirty diapers. And apparently, I didn't always smell of sugar and spice and everything nice. The name stuck for so long that I even have recollection of being called "Stinker." I'm sure that impacted my development into womanhood somehow. Mabye it explains my affinity for overusing air fresheners at the hint of a foul smell.

Matthew somehow got to being called Woogs. Enough said. I don't know what it means or where it came from.

And finally, the infamous Jonathan. Much to my Mom's chagrin she picked a name for her last born child that was to be the easiest to morph into nicknames.

No sooner had my parents taken their youngest one to church for the first time than Dad had everyone at Prairie Creek calling him "JT," short for Jonathan Thomas. Mom fought long and hard for her "Jonathan" to be called by his full name, but she was fiercely outnumbered by Sunday School teachers and friends.

Papa Gus instigated the entire picking apart of Jonathan's name, for he was the first to point out that Jonathan was really just Jo Nathan put together. At the age of seven, I thought that was ingenious and hilarious, and so it stuck. Jo Nathan he was and Jo Nathan he was called.

Somewhere in the elementary school years, Jonathan decided to take the nicknaming into his own hands. "I want to be called 'Billy'" he told everyone. (My Dad was known as "Billy" among neighbors and church friends before us kids were born.) And so, for a period of about a year, Jonathan was not called Jonathan, Joey, Jo Nathan or anything else resemblying his real name. We called him "Billy," after his dad.

Jonathan and I had a special bond from a young age. Even though we were farthest apart in age, we got along great. (Matthew was always a little crazier, more daring, and listened to just a little too much country music for Jonathans's and my taste - so we didn't bond until I realized the errors of my ways and learned to two-step with the best of them. We are now fast friends.)

So, during our early childhood, I got tired of calling my baby brother Jo Nathan. I wanted my own name for him, something of a sister-brother bond. And so Joey he became.

I was very proud of my own nickname for Joey, until everyone else started calling him Joey. Then I turned to using "Joe" when I wanted his attention (He liked it best spelled with an "E" at the end). But that caught on with everyone else too. I tried Joey Boy and FINALLY no one else dared called him that, so it stuck between me and him.

And then, while I was away at college, he grew to be taller than me and started shaving, and all of a sudden, he wasn't so much of a boy any more. And his baseball teammates were calling him Junior and he liked that name the best. And so I had to stop calling him Joey Boy, because he was too big and it wasn't cool.

Rumor has it that he doesn't even really like being called Joey any more. So, we're back to square one.

Jonathan, the name he was given at birth, that my Mother worked so hard to pick out and make everyone call him, has finally come full circle.

You may still hear tales of Joey, Joe, Jo Nathan, Junior, JT or Joey Boy from days of old. But really it's just my way of saying, "that's my littlest brother and you'd better not mess with him."