by John Straka
President Dwight D. Eisenhower was known as Ike. Charles Lindbergh, the first person to fly alone across the Atlantic Ocean, was called Lucky Lindy and Bob Feller, the Cleveland Indians pitcher, was Rapid Robert to many baseball fans due to his high-speed fastball.
Nicknames are fairly common and I know a few people associated with Maple Heights who may have been better known by their nicknames than by their real names. Here is my list: Manhole Joe, Breezy, Kolacki, Venda, Oofie, Halfie, Punky, Whitey, Blackie, Pontiac, Juicy Lucy, Hambone, Chick, Hank, Junior, Foxy, Curly, Red, Mickey, Bunny, Sugar, Flossie, Pepsi and Fat-fat-throw-the-bat.
I'm sure there are many more and many readers will be able to add to the list. There is a story behind each name. Some are flattering, some are not. I'll only identify the good ones and in some cases readers will recognize the not-so-nice ones.
Manhole Joe got his new name after he fell into the manhole used to fill the high school's coal bin with pulverized coal. Breezy is a shortened form of the name of a high school friend and when I called him Breezy some time ago, he said no one had used that name in a long time. Kolacki may or may not have known that her classmates called her that after she brought some Bohemian Kolacki to school one day.
Venda lived on Lee Road and I don't recall his real name or why he was called Venda. I don't know how to spell Oofie, but I think that may have been a form of Alfie, maybe the closest some little kid could come to saying Alfred.
Halfie was a mean way to refer to a guy who somehow became known as a half-wit. I knew him and he seemed pretty normal to me. Punky, actually the Ponikvar brothers, ran a store on Broadway at Greenhurst. Just about everybody in Maple Heights knew about Punky's store. There was a sign out front that read, "Don't go somewhere else and get cheated. Stop here!"
I don't know if Whitey and Blackie knew each other, but Whitey was a blond-haired boy and Blackie had black hair and a complexion darker than most of the Czech, Slovenian and Irish kids in Maple Heights. Pontiac didn't look like most of the other girls in school. Her features were compared to the Indian figure on the hood ornament of a Pontiac automobile. After many years, I met her again and she had developed into a very beautiful lady.
Juicy Lucy got her nickname after attending a birthday party where the teenagers played some kissing games. She probably never knew. Hambone was a popular boy in high school and my guess is that "Ham" came from someone's pronunciation of Hiram and that became Hambone.
Chick, Hank and Junior were Charles, Henry and just about any boy given his father's name. Some were called Junior only in childhood. Others carried the name through their adult lives. Foxy Kostir ran a store on Broadway and Lee and engaged in a game of wits as he and the school kids tried to outfox each other in their purchases of ice cream, candy and school supplies.
Curly and Red Klir were probably the best known couple in Maple Heights in their time. She died at a very young age and her husband, whose bright red hair made him stand out in a crowd, sold siding to nearly every homeowner in Maple Heights.
I knew two women called Mickey. One got her nickname as a short form of Michelina and the other one has a real name not even near to sounding like Mickey. There were two people called Bunny. She was active in our town's civic affairs and he was older than I am and I don't remember much about him. Sugar got his nickname because, first of all, he was a very handsome young man. He spoke Bohemian and that charmed all the ladies on our street. They kept saying he was so sweet and soon he became known as Sugar.
I don't know if Flossie was short for Florence or not. I never met her but I knew her family. As a young woman she was standing on a street corner when a gust of wind blew her skirt into the wheels of a passing truck. She died of her injuries.
I do not know who Fat-fat, etc., was but when boys and girls played baseball and it was her turn to bat, all the kids would get out of the way because if she managed to hit the ball, she would let go of the bat and there was no way of knowing where it would go.
I never met the lady known as Pepsi.
Some nicknames were kid stuff, some were not. In his youth my father was called Nifty. Did you have a nickname? Did I leave out some well-known ones?