Huh?

To the average passerby, the three pictures would be seemingly random. Gumbo. Boomer. Gator. But to us they are very closely related. They were the nicknames Dad gave to us and called us all of our lives. I was Gumbo, Dana was Boomer and Dan was Gator. How he came up with them, I really have no idea, but I'm pretty sure he chose them before we were even born. Whether we liked them or not, we were stuck with them. Mom would often refer to Dan as Bumblelion, but Dad said he was too tough to be called Bumblelion. He was a boy - a Gator. I remember one time there was an article in the Sun News about the possible environmental effects of the clay on the beaches. The headline read Gumbo on Beaches May Pollute Ocean. The whole family thought it was a filppin' riot....except me! That headline hung on the dry erase board in Dad's office for years until it was crumpled and faded and barely hanging on. Looking back, these nicknames mean so much more than Pumpkin, Princess or Sport ever could have. We will all treasure our nicknames forever. I'll never hear the word gumbo - whether in reference to soup or clay - that I don't immediately think of Dad.