Ever in search of stories from our classmates, one day I asked what kind of nicknames class members have enjoyed—or endured. There were a few surprises.
Some sweet names were bestowed by families: Cindy Burke Elder’s called her “Cin” and still do. Barbara DeHart Eadie’s grandparents called her Barby. Sharon Ralph Gingras still gets called "Ralph" by a few people, “including my husband at times”. Laurie MacFall Leinbach’s dad, whose parents were from Ireland, always endearingly called her “O’Houlihan” and later she was “Mac” to nursing co-workers and friends.
Pamela Purdy Stephens said her dad always called her Pammie, no matter how old she was, at which point Duane Brown volunteered that he called a Pam in our class “Pammie Pooh”, but couldn’t remember which one. Several Pams immediately chimed in to say, “It wasn’t me!”
Some liked their nicknames: Patricia Schneider Mannor was Patty all her life until she moved to Florida where somehow that turned into Pat. “BUT I like Patty.”
Some did not: Susan Magid Bergin was “Susie” and that was okay but “NOT Sue!” Somehow it went into the yearbook as Sue and she’s still mad about it.
Pamela Conn Hyde was known as Red for the color of her hair and many friends still call her that, including some we know (Mike Keebler, John Cooch). She said it has probably been 15 years since she got another nickname—Perky—because of her bubbly personality.
Some nicknames morph into email monikers. When Pam was a kid, she and her sister picked out play names and hers was Lizette, the French Maid. Today, if you’re in the class Facebook group, you’ll know who it is when you see a post from PerkyLizette and that’s her email name too. Duane’s nickname from a co-worker at the Pacific Stock Exchange became Deweytoo@aol.com.
Vicki Guenther Farrell didn’t have a childhood nickname but when Tiny Tim married “Miss Vicki” on TV, everyone started calling her that.
Robert Berning got his from Cazzie Russell in the summer before our senior year. Robert played pickup games with many of the players from the 1964 team, whom he thinks of as “Rudy, Bill, Ollie, Larry, Craig, et al.” That was cool, but it’s sometimes the uncool stuff we remember from high school, such as “a misprint in the school paper calling me ‘Boz Berning’.” He adds, “Glad that never caught on.”
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