Archives · August 16, 2007 15

What’s in a name?

“That which we call a rose /By any other name would smell as sweet.” -Shakespeare

Up until I turned 16 and got my first job everyone called me Jay. Why? Because of my brother the father, I mean The Preacher. Growing up he did not want to call me by my full name or by Junior or J.R. so he simply stuck with Jay and the whole family caught on. So everyone I ever met called me Jay.

When I got my first job when I turned 16 at White Cleaners I told them to refer to me as Jay. After awhile I didn’t like it but that job was only temporary, although I didn’t know it at the time. Any job after that I had them call me Sal.

Family and childhood friends still referred to me as Jay but slowly but surely even they started to call me Sal. For a long long time the only friend that still called me Jay was Rob. But even now in the comments, his blog, and in twitter he is referring to me as Sal. That is very weird.

When it came to my name things got a little comical at church. It was my brother who told me about Grace Baptist Church in Harlingen so when he told his BEST friend Juan and his family that I was coming he referred to me as Jay. So when I got there I introduced myself as Sal but when Juan and DeeDee showed up they kept referring to me as Jay so then the whole church started calling me Jay. Then it got worse. People started calling me Jeff and Jake and Dale at one time. I finally started telling people I prefer Sal so that started a big confusion with everyone but it was funny and people got a kick out of it. Finally, I just started telling people to call me Sal during the week and Jay on the weekends.

Juan can’t seem to decide who I am either. He refers to me as Jay or Sal and sometimes just J.

So, to recap. If I hear any of these names called I usually turn:
Jay, Sal, Jeff, Jake, Dale. Oh and I almost forgot about the time Juan and I went to Central Baptist Church for revival and Juan introduced me to everyone as Big Johns Little Brother or B.J.L.B. for short. My Preacher’s son called me Eeyore because I once said that “noone loves me”, Preacher once called me Sal Gates because of the whole computer thing and his wife called me Peter Parker for my geekiness.

I am sure I missed a few but I have rambled on long enough.

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