"The Evolution Of Bill"

Why John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt? I am not ready sure, but I remember learning this song one year at summer camp and thinking. “I want to be him.” Mainly because I was not him, cool, popular and he had a song. (Cut me some slack I was 8.) I think the names we answer to or go by has an effect on how you relate to others. Let’s look at the evolution of Bill.
On July 20, 1967 I was given the name William Joseph Brown, my earliest nickname I can remember answering to was “Little Peanut “ given to me by my grandmother because I was so small and looked like my father .(She named him Peanut too) When I was Peanut, all I did was be cute and smiled a lot. Grandmother was the only one I enjoyed calling me Peanut. She passed away last year so Peanut is no more. Next I answered to “Willie” this name also was my father’s . This is what I would call my family and the neighborhood name(If I am somewhere mainly Pittsburgh, and someone is calling, than yelling Willie with disgust, I know they are calling for me and is a family member or from the neighborhood) When I was Willie, I was still cute but I was also quiet, did not know what to say and did not think anyone wanted to hear from me.

In six grade I asked people to call me William, thought I was getting older and I did not like how people called me Willie. You know how someone could seem to say all the right things, but it still feels like they are making fun of you or cursing you. That is how being called Willie felt (and still feels sometime) William did not stick, too many people just called me Will, so I made an announcement. “My Name Is Now Bill.” Finding my voice, not so cute anymore, if you did not call me Bill I would not answer you, really. I would not flinch, Got a reputation for being an a hole, that I wore as a badge of honor. At the time it worked for me, I changed my name. Here is the ironic thing about this, I pick Bill to be “popular” Everybody knows Bill Brown, but because of the way I made the change I isolated myself, not lonely. A sort of self isolation to do things on my terms. That brings us back to doe. I am an observer. Now trying to be a participator.

I have been working on a book project for a number of years now call "Boxed In And Labeled” that explores why people label us, how we label ourselves, and how to fight those labels. This project started of as a memoir, than I thought, “Who do you think you are to write a memoir”. So I stopped writing. Than I thought I would write a One Act Play. Yeah great, I could not decide on the main character, so I stopped writing. My next plan is to write the intro to a series of books that solicit stories from people all over the world. A sort of Chicken Soup for the Soul concept. That’s big, so big I am again stumped. The more I think about it the bigger it gets and the bigger it gets the more I am afraid to share it with anyone. But I guess I just did.
Soon I will be asking for your stories.
Until later,