My Dad's Nickname

My father passed away when he was 94 years old. He was born in 1901 in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and grew up in a small town called Grand Marais. Throughout his life he and his two brothers loved "spoonerisms." A dictionary defines spoonerisms as "A transposition of sounds of two or more words." My warts are numb is translated as my nuts are warm. A question asked when trekking in snow covered woods up north.

I picked up my dad's enjoyment of spoonerisms although I am not as adept at it as he was.

Through the years one of my uncles on my father's side would refer to my father as "Shinner." My dad would respond as though he knew what the name meant, but nothing was ever said how my dad came by this unusual moniker.

In 1980 my father, his two brothers, my brother Dean and I took a trip back to their boyhood village of Grand Marais. As we toured the village, looked at the old high school still functioning after all these years and even found the old home built by my Grandfather in Grand Marais the three brothers started spinning yarns. At one point my uncle Earl finally told how my dad got the name "Shinner."

It seemed when they were youngsters, probably about 1908 - 10 they would walk to the elementary school some mile from their home. This is remote area, Grand Marais is a picturesque little village sitting on the shore of Lake Superior and was once one of the main outposts of the great logging days. Woods abound and you can imagine the route to school as some two rut road traversing through wooded country. Just about every day my Dad had to step back into the woods and take a dump, bowel movement, the old #2. One of things you have to know is my Dad's name was Vernon or Vern. So when my dad rejoined the small band of children going on toward schools someone would say, "Vernie shit." Referring to the act.

Eventually through the application of spoonerisms this phrase became "Shinner Vert." You can then see that simply dropping the vert became my dad's nickname that old boyhood friends still remembered and used as he grew older.

Kids had fun regardless of the year, the times, or the conditions. So here's to old Shinner.