Ed, Edd, n Eddy...

Guess who?? Read on...

For the old folks, Ed, Edd, n Eddy is a cartoon show. The first time I saw the title, I had to laugh, cuz that's another story in my family...

My grandfather was Edwin Thomas Schenck

My Father was Edwin Thomas Schenck, Jr.

My brother is Edwin Thomas Schenck, III,

My nephew is Edwin Thomas Schenck, IV...

Now, for those of you who think this is a nifty tradition...

it ain't all it's cracked up to be

It goes like this...

(best you take notes)

My grandfather was called Ed, and sometimes Eddie by his friends. My grandmother called him Eddie when they were younger, and no one was confused at all.

Then...

My father was born.

As my father grew older, he became Eddie and my Grandfather became Ed (until we were born and started calling him Poggy, but that's an ENTIRELY different story). This was only slightly confusing because, of course, my Grandfather was still Eddie to his friends and occasionally things got.. well... mixed up.

My father was called Eddie by his friends; Ed by his business associates and my grandfather was still Ed and Eddie occasionally and things got... more complicated. They were in business together. At that time, asking for Senior or Junior could help untangle the situation... at that time.

Then my brother was born. As he grew up, HE was Eddie and my father was Ed and, thank goodness, my grandfather got a nickname, which helped us little ones not make some nasty mistakes...

But it wasn't that simple.

My grandfather was still called Ed and Eddie and my father was still called Ed and Eddie (Eddie a great deal, cuz he was an Eddie kind of guy) and my brother was called Eddie and things began to fall apart... slowly... surely.. inexorably.. For a long time the Eddies could be categorized by age. Then by height (i.e. .. young Eddie, old Eddie.. big Ed... ). My brother had the lack of grace to become taller than my father, but not as tall as my grandfather, which didn't help one damned bit.

Imagine the phone calls when my brother was a teenager... It's a wonder we didn't all go a bit bonkers...

oh wait...

I did, didn't I..

dang...

For a number of years it was difficult. I didn't answer the phone for a long time. My sister's head continued to enlarge, but no one noticed because of the confusion. None of us dated often. My mother's hair turned white, but just on the top, where all the distinguishing features of the Eds and Eddies were stored.

no..

really...

Add to this delight the fact that, after my grandfather left the business and things settled there, my brother came to work with my father and you get just a small idea of the chaos that was their life...

My grandfather died in 1963 , and for a while things calmed a bit. We still had confusion in casual conversations when talking about any ONE of them, much less the three...

Then my nephew was born, and it started ALL OVER AGAIN!

My nephew, bless his heart, named his son Calvin...

We were all extremely grateful...