Nicknames

Yesterday my brother-in-law came to town for business meetings and he is staying with us for a few days. Erika and Natalie had a lot of fun becoming reacquainted with their uncle. Steve was fabulous with them and by the end of an evening ice cream run they began discussing nicknames for him. They felt that “Uncle Steve” was too bland and impersonal (my words, not theirs, I think they just said “blah”). Steve jumped right in and said his nickname was “Cool Breeze.” It’s true; he’s had that nickname for over 20 years. He’s also been known as “Pop,” “Murph” and “The Chairman” but they did not like any of these names. They wanted something unique that would remind them of their fun evening. Earlier that night Steve had commented that he loves all fruit, which contrasted sharply with Kara and my young daughters. Considering this, Erika suggested the nickname of “Mr. Fruit.”

For reasons that were clear to the adults, Steve wasn’t entirely comfortable with this nickname. Of course Kara did whatever she could to encourage it. After a while, Mr. Fruit could see that he was fighting a losing battle so he offered one mitigating alternative. He said, “What about ‘Mr. Fruit Cup?’”

It was a timely inside joke (that I’m not going to try to explain) and I laughed for five minutes. Murph has been making me laugh for a quarter century now.