Nicknames

Nicknames were given in familiarity or friendliness to mark pe- culiarities or infirmities, or to indicate locality or occupation. Such s “Billy nine toes”, “John tailor”, “Duncan harbour”, “Sandy the marsh”, “Sonny” was a highly respected man, few people knew his proper name. Abbreviating names was common. Some names were changed in the abbreviating, Bill for William; Stephen became Teed. There was a peculiar custom of running names back to ancestors to distinguish between them. Where James’ father’s name was John and his father’s name James, the first was called “Jimmy Johnny Jim- my” and so “Hughie Joe Hughie”. The surnames were not given and to many were unknown. In some families two children would have the same name in which case one might be known as “Little Donald” and the other “Big Donald”, Little Jim” and “Big Jim”.

The same method would be applied to persons of the same name in

different families: “Big Herb” and “Little Herb”. Features would also distinguish persons as “Red Angus”, “Black Dan”. We under- stood one another very well b-ut it would have been more convenient if they had been numbered as we number soldiers, especially if we had to write the names.

School and Education

In another chapter I will tell you of my school days, but I want to give some account here of our school affairs. While our educa- tional privileges were meagre they were far more than our fathers and mothers had. My father could read very little; he could not write or make figures; yet he was intelligent and could make up sums mental- ly and keep records in his memory. Mother went to school only three months; she could read well, but could not write or make figures. Some of the members of the School Board could not spell simple Words, or do a sum in addition. When they came to examine the school they frequently made such blunders that they put the scholars into convulsions of laughter, that even the master’s hardwood ruler could not control. One who, as we all knew, was very illiterate, ven- tured one day to correct a scholar’s spelling the word school; the schol- ar spelled the word correctly, but the man thought it was not correct

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