Monday, August 17, 2015

Nicknames


His birth certificate said his name was Frederick.
The priest who baptized him called him Ferdinand.
His siblings called him Freddy.
As a teenager, he liked to drive fast - "going like Barney Oldfield," as the saying went back then - so his friends (and eventually his wife and her family) called him Barney.
At work he was Fred.
When he died in 1986, his tombstone read Fred R. Imwalle.
I just called him Dad.

Originally published by The Columbus Dispatch on August 17, 2015.