Swagerty-Aldrich Family Web Site

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Mary Lou, did you have any nicknames as a child? How did you feel about them?

I like my name ok now but growing up I always hated it and I wanted a nickname in the worse way.  I begged my parents to call me a nickname.  In high school I wanted to change the spelling to Mari Lu thinking that would make my name much cooler, but that never happened.  i tried to get people to call me Lou or Lulu…that didn’t work either.  In college I decided to be called Mary.  That lasted for a year or so but then I decided that that wasn’t really my name, my parents had chosen Mary Lou for me so that’s what I should be called.  Around that time also, Brian and I were taking a numerology/astrology class at Everyone’s U. We learned that the letters of your name help to determine your personality traits.  I decided that it might be a good idea to keep Lou as it might add to my personality.  It took a while for people to get used to that and I still get Christmas cards from old college friends who call me Mary.  My Mom did end up calling me Mares sometimes.  My sister, Mardean, is Mars and I’m Mares so I guess I did get a nickname from my Mom after all!