"Hey Mr. Cee"

[Alpo]

Do your children's friends call you by your last initial?

 

Like on Happy Days. They were the Cunninghams, and all of Richie's friends called them Mr and Mrs C.

 

That always seemed kind of stupid to me.

 

Just saw an NCIS where one of Kayla's friends called Leon "Mr. V".

 

Still seems stupid. And I've never heard anyone do that in real life. Just on television.

[Subdeacon Joe]

Not the same, but a couple of my dad's friends had us use their  nicknames,  at least at parish work parties.  Mr. Schunemacher told us to call him "Dutch" just like everyone else - big man, about 6'4" and built likea linebacker.  "Frenchie" Fecteau (sp?) told us to call him "Frenchie."  Even after 20 years in the US he had a fairly strong French accent.  Never heard anyone call him anything except "Frenchie" or "French in Fecteau." Friendly guy, maybe 5'4", slender, former Maqui.

Edited March 9 by Subdeacon Joe

[Alpo]

Yeah, my Little League baseball coach. His name was Patinode. He told us to call him Pat.

[Bad Bascomb, SASS # 47,494]

  My podiatrist, Dr. Boghossian, is known as Dr. B.  My urologist, Dr. Rajaratnam, is Dr. Raj.

[watab kid]

never happened where i grew up , and that was the fonzie era and the folks would not have liked it either 

[Pat Riot]

I never heard anyone call an adult “Mr.” or “Mrs” (fill in letter). When I was a kid all other parents were mister or missus with last name, even if they insisted you call them by their first name. It just wasn’t done. To do so was to be punished under pain of butt whoopin’.

 

For my daughter’s friends they would all call me “Mr. (My last name”. Some would call me “Mr. Tom” (my first name). I am pretty sure that is an eastern US thing derived from German influences. 
If my daughter’s friends passed muster and spent a lot of time with us I would insist they call me by my first name IF their parents didn’t mind. 

[Alpo]

8 hours ago, Pat Riot said:

When I was a kid all other parents were mister or missus with last name, even if they insisted you call them by their first name. It just wasn’t done.

When my daughter was 14, I think, she had a birthday/slumber party. And I had made my wishes known, many times, to my wife. My adult friends call me Joe, but children call me Mr Smith. That's just the way it is. Children show respect to adults by calling them Mr and Mrs.

 

So we got these four or five little girls in the living room, and my wife introduces us to them. "Hi. We're Sally's parents. I'm Mary, and this is my husband Joe, who prefers to be called Mr Smith."

 

"Who prefers to be called Mr Smith". Like there's something strange about that.

[Subdeacon Joe]

15 hours ago, Subdeacon Joe said:

Mr. Schunemacher told us to call him "Dutch" just like everyone else

 

 

I got to thinking about it because that didn't seem quite right.  Mr. Schunemacher was always Mr. Schunemacher.  It was Mr. Jurgensmeyer who had us call him Dutch.  His name, among the adults anyway was "Skoony" (no idea if I've spelled that right).  

 

10 hours ago, Pat Riot said:

When I was a kid all other parents were mister or missus with last name, even if they insisted you call them by their first name. It just wasn’t done. To do so was to be punished under pain of butt whoopin’.

 

It felt strange at first, and my dad raised an eyebrow at me the first time he heard me call Mr. Jurgensmeyer "Dutch."  When I explained he figured that honoring the wishes of the adult was not disrespectful, that, in fact, it would have been disrespectful to NOT do what I was told.  

Looking back on it, once I hit 12 or 13, all those men at the parish work parties treated me as an equal. Oh, they knew I was greener than grass and was still learning, but I was showing up, doing a man's amount of work, even if a bit clumsy and inefficient, but was doing the work.  They'd even, at quitting time, allow me one beer.   Most were still "Mr. Surname" but none had a problem with me using "Dutch" and "Frenchie" for the men who had told me to use those names for them.  What a great group of men - Lovell, Fecteau, Jurgensmeyer, Schunemacher, Lopez, Aguilarra, Reis, Johnson, Thomas, Duran, Sonoda, Marron, others that can't recall the names, and the faces have grown dim, but the memories remain.  A veritable United Nations of surnames.  Just about all WWII vets.  

Edited March 9 by Subdeacon Joe

[Big Gus, SASS# 66666]

Lots of people call me Mr G

 

Werner Gstattenbauer 

BigGus

#6666

[Trailrider #896]

When I was a kid, we called most adults Mr. (surname) and Mrs. (surname), even the parents of the kids next door, who were close friends of my folks. OTOH, I was allowed to call close friends of my folks, "Uncle David" and "Aunt Miriam", even though they weren't relatives.  When I was finally in college, I asked if I could call the grownups referred to in the first example by their first names,, which was granted. Likewise, their kids had the same sequence. 

I don't recall what the situation was with my own kids...now in their fifties, but it was respectful, regardless. When my younger daughter was a teacher in a metropolitan middle school, she was called simply, "Miss" until she got married, then "Missus". By virtue of the respect in which she was held by her students and their parents...especially one father, who was a highly respected individual among his peers... "Miss" was "safe". She was to be protected, and her vehicle immune from vandalism when parked in the school vicinity!

[Alpo]

48 minutes ago, Trailrider #896 said:

OTOH, I was allowed to call close friends of my folks, "Uncle David" and "Aunt Miriam", even though they weren't relatives. 

When I was in the fourth grade I know just several of my schoolmates talking about that. They would refer to close friends of their parents as Uncle Joe and Aunt Susie.

 

My father had a close friend - Phil Carter. And he was over to the house one night, after he left I said something about "Uncle Phil" - I don't know, trying it on for size? - and daddy straightened me out real fast. That man was Mr Carter. He was not Uncle anything. And I needed to remember that.

 

The first and only time that I called a non-relative uncle.

[Capt. James H. Callahan]

13 hours ago, Pat Riot said:

I never heard anyone call an adult “Mr.” or “Mrs” (fill in letter). When I was a kid all other parents were mister or missus with last name, even if they insisted you call them by their first name. It just wasn’t done. To do so was to be punished under pain of butt whoopin’.

 

For my daughter’s friends they would all call me “Mr. (My last name”. Some would call me “Mr. Tom” (my first name). I am pretty sure that is an eastern US thing derived from German influences. 
If my daughter’s friends passed muster and spent a lot of time with us I would insist they call me by my first name IF their parents didn’t mind. 

People from the south do that a lot. I used to work with a gal, she and her husband were from South Carolina. I was always Mr. Wayne and our boss Mr. Danny. It's a sign of respect I think. Not necessary, but I never get my feelings hurt over respect. Kinda rare nowdays.

JHC

[Doc Neeley]

When I was in the army, the black guys in my unit all called me Jimmy T. I kinda liked it. (that was 1964 to 1967)

[watab kid]

13 hours ago, Alpo said:

When my daughter was 14, I think, she had a birthday/slumber party. And I had made my wishes known, many times, to my wife. My adult friends call me Joe, but children call me Mr Smith. That's just the way it is. Children show respect to adults by calling them Mr and Mrs.

 

So we got these four or five little girls in the living room, and my wife introduces us to them. "Hi. We're Sally's parents. I'm Mary, and this is my husband Joe, who prefers to be called Mr Smith."

 

"Who prefers to be called Mr Smith". Like there's something strange about that.

ya , whats wrong with that ? im also mr smith , but my kids friends that were in our home were not required to be that formal , i did hear sir a few times but i seldom responded to that , it just never quite fit me , 

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

At my daughter’s schools (6 weeks to 6 years), the teachers are all Miss first name. Miss regardless of marital status.