The Nickname Game

There is no mind-numbing tune to go with this game but you may find that your brain is otherwise enriched by the answers to these questions.  Good luck!

1.  BEFORE DR. ROBERT WHITESIDE BECAME an oral surgeon in Sioux City, Iowa, he served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps where he earned the nickname:

A.  Smiley
B.  Toothy
C.  Whitey
D.  Pearly

ANSWER: Bob Whiteside served at a number of stateside locations during World War II, including Indianapolis and perhaps most importantly Roswell, N.M., where he was on hand for the debriefing and medical clearance of the air crews that returned stateside after dropping the atomic bomb on Japan. They called him Whitey.
 

2. LOTHAR 'BUD' FIEG JR. was known to his friends, associates and subordinates who worked with him in the mine at Mississippi Lime in Ste. Genevieve, MO, as:

A.  Digger
B.  Red
C.  Mole
D.  Freckles

ANSWER: Though Bud rose to superintendent during his more than three-decade career and was in charge of more than 300 men, none was too intimidated by his rank to address him by the nickname by which he was affectionately known, Red, a moniker he earned not only because of his approachability but his hair color.



3.  IN THE AMERICAN CULTURE, NICKNAMES are common,  as evidenced, for example, when Richard Bookhout Jr. becomes Richie, James McGonigal becomes J.J., Joseph Kestner becomes Joe and so on.  Mary Bookhout Wolcott's husband is known as Jack, but how does his first name appear on his driver's license and birth certificate?

A.  Jacques
B.  Jackson
C.  John
D.  Jack

ANSWER: Jack Wolcott, who works as a plasma bank executive, would not change his name for blood nor money. That's because his mother, Cecil Day, now in her 90s, and her late husband, Howard Wolcott, at their son's birth made sure he would never be called anything different from the way everyone addresses him to this day. His name is Jack, and that's that.



4.  DORIS FIEG HOLM, last surviving daughter of the late Max Fieg was given a special nickname by her mother Louise, when Doris was a little girl growing up in Milford, PA.  Doris Fieg Holm was known to her mother as:


A. Duckie
B. Duchess
C. Dutchie
D. Lucky

ANSWER: In the 1920s, '30s and '40s a number of pet names and words were in vogue for people and things that were thought to be lovely and delightful, such as Peachy, Deary and so forth. and though this particular word has all but vanished from the popular vernacular, Doris to this day is still Duckie, absolutely Duckie.



5.  ALL THE CHILDREN RAISED AT the Fieg family homestead at 10 North Sixth St. in Oneonta were given diminutive, often staccato nicknames, such as Em for Emilie,  Phid for Philip, Bud for Lothar etc.  What were the nicknames of the two babies of the family, Maxine and Dorothy?

A.  Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee
B.  Zee and Dot
C.  Mac and Doc
D.  Morey and Dorey

ANSWER: Nearly all of the children were named with uncles and aunts in mind (Victor Philip, for instance, carries the names of an uncle on his mother's side, an uncle on his father's side, his paternal grandfather and ad infinitum). Maxine has never much liked her name, as it was chosen for her in memory of her Uncle Max. Perhaps she was more comfortable being called Mac, which her siblings called her for much of her adult life. Dorothy, however, seems just as happy to have outgrown the name Doc.



6.  THE LATE EMILIE FIEG McGONIGAL'S SON ROBERT today is known to friends and family as Bob, but when younger he was called Bobby.  Still, he had another name when he was a toddler, a name many of the children in the neighborhood called him.  It was:

A. Sweetie
B. Teedee
C. Tweetie
D. Butch

ANSWER: Bob's mother began by calling him Sweetie, but the word morphed into Teedee as she talked to him in baby talk. The neighborhood kids, and Bob's cousins, picked up on it, and soon Bobby was Teedee where ever he went. It's not advisable to call him Teedee anymore, however, and no, you can't follow him on Twitter.



8.  LIKE HER SIBLINGS, FLORENCE FIEG BOOKHOUT was given a nickname, Flo, when growing up.  After she married, however, her husband Dick gave her another pet name.   The name was:

A. Lambie
B. Fleecie
C. Flossie
D. Flipper

ANSWER: Florence Fieg Bookhout's grandson, John Boggs, owns the brass nameplate from Florence and Dick's boat, which they kept on Otsego Lake near Cooperstown and which was christened the "Flossie B." for the pet name he gave his wife.



9.  ANNIE BOOKHOUT'S HUSBAND, BOB MORGAN, has built a beautiful ranch house for his father and mother next door to Annie and Bob's in Brooktondale,  N.Y.   His father, Jim Morgan, 95, roomed at St. Lawrence Univ. in Canton, NY with another student who has also celebrated a 95th birthday.  Many Fieg family members will recognize this person as:

A.  Jack Wolcott's mother Cecil Day
B.  Lothar "Bud" Fieg's bicycle shop partner Clifford "Roger" Silliman
C.  Dorothy Fieg Roman's brother-in-law Don Roman
D.  Kirk Douglas


ANSWER: Cecil Day, Roger Silliman and Don Roman are still going strong into their 90s, but though all hail from upstate New York, it is a native of Amsterdam in New York's Mohawk Valley whom Jim Morgan knew at St. Lawrence.  His name then was Issur Danielovich Demsky but today most of us know him as Kirk Douglas, the dean of Hollywood actors.  Though Kirk has suffered a stroke which has affected his speech somewhat, his mind is still good and he occassionally appears in public.