Personal History - Nicknames That Should 'Di'

I had the great good fortune to enter this world behind a big brother, and my first nickname that I remember came from him.

"Frou-frou Head"

Yeah.

It might have come about a couple of ways. First of all, I thought very differently from everyone else in the family. My father was so strait-laced and conservative. My mother was sedate and calm, or tried to be. My brother was...well, a boy. And I was a greased-up hippie-chick old soul dropped by the stork into the middle of all this calmness and sedated-ness. Which meant that I came off maybe a little spaced-out to the others.

It might also have come about because, as a child, I insisted on growing my hair very long. At one point, it cascaded down to my waist.

And even though it looked glorious, after awhile it just grew cumbersome. Gum stuck in my hair meant loads of untangling or just flat-out cutting, and in those pre-Internet days, if we didn't have access to 'Helpful Hints from Heloise', we didn't know to use peanut butter to remove those pesky gum balls.

Yes, that's how old I am.

At one point in time, my mother forbid gum-chewing entirely at our house...probably because her hair was as long as mine, and sleeping children over her shoulder with gum in their mouths...you get the idea.

Sitting down in a chair grew difficult, since I would sit back against the back of the chair, only to yank my head backward when my hair got pinned between my back and the chair.

When I was baptized into my faith, the rule that every hair had to stay underwater meant that I needed about a hundred bobby pins in my hair, because my water-phobic self could only stand immersion once.

Always and forever I lifted my hair away from purse-straps, once I wanted to have a purse.

So around age eight or nine, the romantic bubble burst, and I insisted on getting a haircut to my shoulders. Such a relief!

Still, the strange nickname stuck around, emerging here and there when my brothers needed ammunition.

"Nana"

Again, another brother-inspired nickname. Often this one immediately led to 'Banana', both in the user's and the receiver's mind, and I never quite knew why, but this one stuck more with all my brothers, and my mom.

"Di" or "Princess Di"

When the 80s rolled around, this nickname grew popular due to Princess Diana's wedding and influence in society, and the more-than-passing resemblance I happened to share with her. I didn't object to this one so much.

"Hon"
My first married nickname.

"Mama"
Undoubtedly my hands-down favorite. :-)

"Memaw"

 The only nickname I will ever refuse to answer to - and all my kids know it. A common moniker for a grandmother down in the South, but it grates on my ears. Sounds like a donkey braying. I won't have it.

When I do get blessed with grandchildren, I will be the "Bube". Because I want to be the very first golden word that drops from my grandchildren's lips, and it doesn't get easier than "Bube". They might even say it by mistake, and that's okay by me.