More on the genesis of Phil's nicknames by Kevin Curran

Kevin Curran wrote a comment on the previous nickname story that shouldn't be buried in the comments, since it also focuses on a story of Phil working at his Dad's shop (Paramount Plastics) that I had never heard before...
________________

You're one step ahead of me, as always. I was thinking of the Pizza Truck heist and you prodded me for an account of it. Last week I thought of nicknames and blammo, you put together an account whose facts I can’t dispute but I can add something in the way of detail.

I inadvertently christened Jerry with Hobart when during a long overdue clean up of the Humboldt St house he donned a shoe string as a head band to keep his long hair from his eyes. I observed that he looked like he was "headed to the Hobart Dump" and Phil immediately pounced on it and "he shall be known as Hobart", soon shortened to Bart.

I don't remember the source of Root but I believe Pomeroy derived from Phil's experience of an African American employee in his dad's shop. Apparently some co-workers would order this fellow around with "Boy, bring me a whatsit" or "Boy, I need a hand over here" to which he always responded with "My name's not Roy" This killed Phil and whenever anyone used "boy" in an expression, as in, "boy, I'm thirsty" or "boy, are we in for it!" Phil, would respond with "my name's not Roy" I would say yes it is, it's short for Pomeroy" and it stuck.

A nickname stuck in those days whenever the recipient blanched or winced at the moment of christening. No wince, no nickname.

After I had saddled the boys with Pomeroy and Hobart they set about assigning me with a revolting moniker. They tried to slap me with a half dozen or so without luck until they conspired to name me for the ventriloquist dummy Mortimer Snerd. They had successfully made me blanch with Ackley from “Catcher in the Rye” but it required too much explanation for a nickname and they gave up on it, to my relief. See, for us, a real nickname had to have a backstory based in mockery but could seem to all outside of our circle to be a term of affection, Ackley couldn’t do that so the boys moved on to the more conventional Mort.

Kevin Curran
September 17, 2007
NYC
---o0o---

Nicknames

We always gave nicknames to each other, and if one didn't work, we went on to the next. We were pretty good at it, so I'm sure I've forgotten a few. Thinking back, though, we didn't attach nicknames to the girls/women we knew. I say girls/women because we were boys/men. We were in that transitional phase during those brief few years I knew Phil. I don't know if not nicknaming the women in our lives was a knucklehead man's man kind or not. I bet Keelin Curran would tell you it was exactly that. . .

Jerry Melin's lasted the longest, I think. It started out as Hobart, and was later shortened to Bart. Bart was short for The Hobart Dump, a garbage dump way way out in the sticks east of Kent. . .so far east it's almost in Issaquah. In later years, I called him Jed (a nod to one of our heroes Jerry Garcia), and finally settled on Mel, short for Melin.

Kevin Curran's was Mort. I don't know the genesis of this one. I don't think it's short for death. I think it just went along well with Hobart as a kind of guy's guy name. When we all vacated the west coast to live in New York City (Kevin, Nick Gattuccio, Colin Curran, Keelin Curran, Jan Newberry, Vicki Lenti, and I), I re-christened him Scooter because we loved the Yankees (and Phil "Scooter" Rizutto). That name has stuck off and on for years now.

I was usually Johnnie, although they tried to make Catfish stick for a year or so. Later, it became Doc and even later Jack, when I was christened that by a boss because "John is a pussy name." That hilarious tale, of my life as a man's man in the world of construction is here: My Worst Jobs, Part 1: McGoo.

Phil had a couple of names that I clearly remember. The first was Pomeroy. And Pom for short. I don't remember how that nickname came up (I suspect he was christened Pomeroy by Jerry and Kevin in their year at the Humboldt Street house), but for Phil, it kind of worked and somehow fit. He could have been a Pomeroy!

Sometime after that we started calling him Root, and that one stuck pretty well, so much so that his sister Claudia remembers it. I vaguely remember it was some sort of reference to "root of love" as opposed to "root of all evil," which would have not applied.

I seem to also remember our friend Chris Petersen a/k/a Milo nicknamed him The Gentleman, which would make sense if you knew him. After Phil's death, Milo composed a jazz tune called "The Gentleman."

---o0o---