At six years old, Daniel, my youngest son determined he no longer wished to be called "Dano." Dano had been his nick name since he was born. Breaking the habit of calling him by this name wouldn't be easy. In addition to breaking this habit to support Dano... I mean Daniel, came with the price of reminding friends and relatives he now wanted to be called Daniel. The most difficult task was getting his brother and sisters to call him by his real name.

In the course of time, with many reminders from Dano... I mean Daniel, ("will you please not call me Dano") we were calling him by his real name more often than not. And, of course, when his brother and sisters wanted to get him perturbed, they would simply call him Dano, at which time, their intentions would be realized. Daniel would then come whining of the injustice committed against him and request the unwanted name calling to stop...

And yet, as the occasional jab would come his way, Dano... I mean Daniel, began to stand up for himself. I find the following account to be quite humorous.

We were at a friend's house and David, my oldest boy, then 9 years old, was playing with a word spin. He decided to take a shot at Daniel, spelling out, "DANODANO," then showed it to Daniel. Not to be shown up or made fun of, Daniel said, "Give me that!" and preceded to take it away from David. With the word spin now in his possession, Daniel quickly spelled out, "DAVOGAYO." He then handed it back to David with a sly grin on his face, much to David's chagrin. All I could do was chuckle at his wit of this six year old...

Copyright © 2004 Dan Tharp