Names In Joe Todd's Life

Maude – Why did the whole town of Urbana, OH call Mary Elizabeth Neely Todd Pepper – Maude or sometimes Maudie Peppers?  My mother married Ray Pepper in August of 1951 and moved to Urbana, OH. I chose to go with them rather than with my father in Auburn, IN. For some reason or other my mother began wanting to hug me tightly in front of my friends – she had not done this before. I asked her to please stop doing this, but she continued.  I had just seen a movie with a stubborn mule in it named “Maude” so I started calling her Maude or sometimes Maudie all the time. Up until that time I had called her Mommie when I was very young and later simply Mom.  Since we were new in town, one fellow asked me what my mother’s name was – I said “Maude Peppers” but my name is Joe Todd. Once when I stopped by the Rock Shop the place where she worked as an interior decorator, a clerk asked me why I called her Maude and I said that’s because that is her real name. Soon everyone in town (Urbana being a relatively small town) started calling her “Maude Peppers” including her husband and my friend and stepfather Ray Pepper. And, she remained that ever since.  She several times asked me why I called her Maude or Maudie and I said because you are as stubborn as that mule in the movie I saw. I never could figure out how it caught on so universally, but it did.

Trapper - This is what I called my maternal Grandfather Alonzo Solon Neely, MD. I was told that at a very young age my Grandfather and I were listening to some radio series that had some hero in it who was a fur trapper and apparently was simply referred to as Trapper – and for what ever reason I started calling him Trapper for then and all eternity. My mother called him Father – but Trapper came out of my mouth. Trapper had a number of names for me such as Piss Pot, Piss Ant, Hoss and Hoss Pistol – Mamaw also use to say to me (Don’t be a piss ant.”  in high school Trapper sometime called me “Skip” which was an early nickname name (Skipper) my parents always called me and friends called me in grade school – Julie uses this name on occasion.  

Mamaw – I called Trapper’s wife and my grandmother Elizabeth Gilmore Neely – Mamaw  - because Maude called her Mom and Mamaw came out of my mouth at an early age.

Far – my father called his father and my paternal grandfather Joseph Clinton Todd – “Father” and it came out of my mouth as “Far”

Lala – my father called his mother “mother” (Emily Robertson Todd). I have no idea where Lala came from!

Skipper -How did I get the name “Skipper” to begin with? I have no idea! But, I thought that was my name from the beginning of my memory – that is the name I learned how to spell in Hibbing preschool and all the way to half way through the 5th grade – I was sliding on a patch of ice during lunch time when a lady came up to me and said “what is your name?” and I said “Skipper Todd” and she said, “No it isn’t – it’s Joseph Todd, only she pronounced it “Jozeeph” – turns out she was to be my teacher for the second half of the 5th grade. The next two years I was at Howe Military School and my name was simply “Todd”. At the end of the 2nd year after I made up my mind that I was not going back to Howe, I just for fun signed my name “Captin Todd” in the year book of some kid and some teacher caught it and told me that “self promotion was not allowed” and besides I should learn how to spell it!

Another name that I was called in Urbana High School by my close friends was – “The Old Jew”. That name came about late one evening in the Paradise coffee shop when a news boy came in trying to get rid of his left over afternoon papers and I tried to talk him down to half price – the name stuck among the friends sitting as the table for the school year and with my close friend Courtney Lilley still to this day. Then there is another side to this name – when in college after the Navy and early in my career I had several other people come up to me and say things like “You’re a Jew aren’t you?”  One such incidence was in college when some girl in a class asked me to help her with her homework assignment. I was helping her in a coffee shop when her boyfriend came by and said “That’s my girl– you’re a Jew aren’t you?”  I responded with something like, “Why don’t you help her with her assignment” He got mad and “supervised” the rest of the session. On another occasion I was sitting with some friends in a public establishment and some stranger came from across the room and said “I don’t like you – you’re a Jew!” I had several other situations like that and they always have mystified me – people are strange. 

My Father also had some names for me early in my life who sort of became my imaginary companions for a few years. “Poopy Doop” whose origin is self-evident and “Big Boy” which was the hoped for direction of my development. I use to have dreams about them. After a while Poopy Doop dropped out of the picture, but Big Boy hung around me for a while longer. My Father also on occasion would call me “Abner Diddlewits” – I thought he told me once it was a comic strip charater, but Google finds no reference to it – but the inference of the name was clear.  I always enjoyed the name.  

Sister Todd – I started calling Julie (Julia Holton King Todd) Sister Todd on our mission to The Bahamas. At the time I told her to always remember when I called her Sister Todd in public that it was a secret code word for several other intimate names – I always had a big smile on my face and in my voice when I called her Sister Todd - Since that time I frequently call her Sister Todd  – also with a big smile on my face and in my voice.