Buddy.<\/p>\n
Just now, as I waited for the elevator, a little boy who was crawling over a bench was addressed by his father, thusly: “Leo, we’re going to get on the elevator, so…Buddy, get off the bench. C’mon, Buddy.”<\/p>\n
You notice what I noticed? Dad made an initial error; he called his son Leo, which clearly was not his name. The child knew it. He failed to obey.<\/p>\n
This is not my first encounter with the spreading Buddy phenomenon. Whenever I go out, I run into Buddys. It’d probably be stretching it to say every little boy is named Buddy, but 8 out of 10 of ’em are.<\/p>\n
I hear “Hey, Buddy!” all over the place, up and down the streets, in the stores.<\/p>\n
Only daddies call their sons “Buddy.” I have yet to hear a mother use the name. This suggests a rift at the time of the birth. Mom coos, “He looks like a Leo,” while Dad is muttering, “Buddy, he’s a Buddy. He’s my<\/em> Buddy.” So Mom and Dad agree to disagree, although a pact is eventually reached over how many years Dad can call the kid Buddy. Maybe the pact stipulates that when Buddy grows to 5 foot 8, he becomes Leo full time.<\/p>\n Why Buddy, though? What does Buddy signify? I myself prefer biblical names, even as I do not prefer the bible itself. When I Googled “Buddy,” I learned it means exactly what you think it means: a close friend. I also learned it’s an archaic term. Tell that to Google, which may be mapping my street but is certainly not out on it, counting all the Buddy boys.<\/p>\n Sometimes dogs are called Buddy, but mostly it’s boys.<\/p>\n My father was remarkable for his inability to identify his kids by their names. He only had three kids; you’d think he’d remember us. But once he called my sister, Deb, by the name of the next door neighbor’s dog.<\/p>\n So there you have it. What<\/em> you have, I am not sure but it’s there, anyway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Buddy. Just now, as I waited for the elevator, a little boy who was crawling over a bench was addressed by his father, thusly: “Leo, we’re going to get on the elevator, so…Buddy, get off the bench. C’mon, Buddy.” You … Continue reading