Gals and Rascals

I'm one of those folks that has difficulty remembering names. Typically if I'm introduced to someone new I do the salutations, talk a bit and tell myself I'll recall their name. But it seldom works for me.

Obviously if see folks on a regular basis I manage to file their name away into a brain location where I can recall it. But for folks that I only see a few times a year, it just ain't there.

I'm not sure when it started, probably in a position at work when I was middle-aged and in contact with a lot of different folks on an irregular basis, but I got in a habit of calling all the ladies 'gal' and all the guys 'rascal'.

Sounds kind of dumb doesn't it, especially with the ancient monikers of 'gal' and 'rascal'. But I became comfortable with it and eventually others probably just thot I was a bit loony. But I still do it today, even on the phone.

I'd walk up to a familiar face and say something along the lines of, "How ya doin' gal, I haven't seen you in a long time." Similar with a guy, "Hey rascal, good to see you man." After a while it just became second nature and I would use it for everybody, whether I remembered their name or not. It also carried over to emails. :-)

An older co-worker, Paul, is probably the one that introduced me to the use of "gal" the first time. Paul was a Korean war veteran and brought that terminology forward into my world during the '60s. I thot it was quaint that he referred to the ladies as gals. I don't know why I started using rascal for the men, especially given the definition above. In retrospect, I suspect that number '1' was my definition of choice.

JD

PS - If you're someone that knows me and I've done it to you, you're probably thinking, "Well that son-of-a-bitch!" Or maybe even worse which I won't get into here...