Monday, January 11, 2010

Where's Shirley?

I never explained the Verne/James thing. I am named after my fathers great grandfather James and his father Laverne. James Laverne Robison. Laverne went by Verne. He was not my fathers’ biological father. He was his step father. I’ve never met his real father. I don’t care to meet his family, he is the only one I considered grandpa. Dad’s grandfather is a step also. It’s the same on my mothers’ side. No one will say anything about her real father. I recently found out he was a Ukrainian sailor. Grandma won’t say anything else about it. I’m not going to pry.


For the first 13 years of my life I went by Verne. I hated it. I always got teased for my name. It was always “Hey Laverne, where’s Shirley?” To this day I can’t watch Laverne and Shirley without cringing. After the show was canceled, along comes Jim Varney and his stupid “Hey Verne!” crap. After that, the movie Stand By Me had a dumbass character named Verne.

When I started 7th grade I thought, here’s my chance, no more Verne. It was a new school with new people; I would start using my first name. It sort of worked. There were a few people from elementary school who insisted upon calling me Verne. Verne morphed into nerd. For the entire 7th grade and half of 8th grade people called me nerd. It sucked, but it was better then Verne.

When I left Rialto, No one called me Verne anymore. Even my family called me James. Verne was dead.

20 years later.

Verne has been resurrected. With all this digging in to my own past, I decided to reefer to myself as Verne again. It just seemed fitting. I can’t escape my past so I will embrace it.



01/11/2010



I woke up all congested. I took a Claritin. Now I’m all amped up and jittery, but I can breath. Every once in awhile, I’ll think of Dawn, It doesn’t last to long and I go on with my day. It doesn’t get me sad. It’s impossible not to think of her sometimes. It would be foolish to think other wise. You can’t spend every day of your life for thirteen years and not think of them occasionally.

I think I really don’t love her. Those feeling are gone. Sure I’ll always have a spot in my heart for her, but yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s gone. I’m not even angry with her new man. He can give her something I was not able too.



Time to work on Verne I guess.

2 comments:

  1. Oh man, the "Hey Verne" phenomenon must have sucked...

    and shirley...and the asshole in Stand By Me... Ugh. tough times for a freaky kid named Verne!

    So, embracing Verne is cool. I'll try to remember to call you that. Let me know if it changes. I like referring to people how they liked to be referred!

    (Thinking about your wife and your life are important for growth and change. Ignoring it likely will only lead to repeating mistakes, eh? Glad it's not making you sad or dysfunctional, though)!

    <3

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