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Nicknames, Picnics, and the Cemetery (by Fred Faber)

Some things are just fun to remember, fun for me, at least, this was my childhood.

Our nicknames were Fidgy, Skeeter, Scooky, Pinky, Punky and Bugaboo and I haven’t the slightest idea where they originated. The six of us were really named, in the same order from oldest to youngest, Phyllis, Fred, Barbara, Pat, Dianna and Sandra. When we moved to Jackson, Ohio, when I was 14, I wanted to be called Skeet, but everyone there just called me Fred and the use of my nickname died away.

Aunt Valerie (Moms’ sister) and Uncle Bernard Ruffner had six children, Uncle Martin (Moms’ brother) and Aunt Lily Coffey had six children, but the last boy died shortly after birth and Uncle Ben (Mom’s youngest brother) and Aunt Ruth had four children, but they lived in Texas and we did not know detail of their curiosities. All of those cousins had nicknames, but none as original or curious as ours. I was the same age as Billy Ruffner and a year younger then Marty Coffey. Phyllis was the same age as Patty Coffey; Barb was the same age as Emma Jo Coffey and Pat the same age as Bobby Ruffner. I went to Cub Scout meetings in town after school and Phyllis went to Brownie Scout meetings. On those days, never the same day, each of us would take a city bus to Grandma Coffey’s house, spend the night and ride the city bus to Sacred Heart School the next morning with our cousins who all lived very near by. All of us school age cousins could just about pack a bus already crowded with rush hour passengers.

Often, during the summer, one of us would be staying over with a cousin in town, or a cousin would be out at the farm. Billy Ruffner was staying with us when someone came down with the mumps: our mothers agreed that he could not return to Charleston until he had caught them and would not be a carrier to the rest of his family at home. Aunt Valerie was deathly afraid of germs and always overdressed her kids to ward off chills: they were always sick, it seemed. It took...

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