Did anyone ever give you a nickname that upset you?
When I was little, there was a kid who lived up the street from me. His name was Donald. Donald and his little brother, Nick, were good friends of mine. It’s weird, but I can’t recall much of anything that we did TOGETHER, except for football or wiffle-ball in the front yard.
I can’t remember the circumstances that led up to it but, one
day, Donald called me a “baby chocolate cake.” And I swear you could hear the
scratching sound of a record needle as the entire world came to a sudden and
abrupt halt. There was about 3 seconds of complete and utter silence. And then
I started crying. Somehow, this was so much worse than “dork” or “idiot” or
“dumb bell.” Me? A baby chocolate cake? Really? Oh no! No no no NO!!!!!!!!
I don’t remember Donald leaving, although I’m sure he hightailed
it outta there. I don’t remember how long I cried, but it felt like hours. I do
remember that I was inconsolable as I sat in my mom’s lap and cried into her
shoulder. It took some time for me to be able to explain what had happened
because I would completely fall apart before I could get the words “baby
chocolate cake” out of my mouth.
“And
then he…::sniff::…and the he called…::deep breath::…and then he called me a
babbbbbbwwaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”
Eventually I calmed down. Eventually I told her what happened.
And eventually I got over it because, after all, it was just an isolated
incident, right? But that’s not how kids are. Despite how good friendships are,
kids know how to push other kids’ buttons and they’ll do it with or without any
reason.
Over time, Donald’s insult graduated into something more than a
simple name-calling. It became a taunt, whose sole purpose was to get a rise
out of me. The singsong lilt of “Jansky is a baby chocolate caaaake” never once
failed to make me cry my eyes out.
In 1980, when I was 10 years old and in the fourth grade, the
movie The Empire Strikes Back was released. I spilled the beans to Donald that
(SPOILER ALERT!) Darth Vader was Luke Skywalker’s father. He hadn’t seen the
movie yet and he was mad at me. And rightly so! After all, that revelation
eventually landed on Premiere magazine’s list of the 25 Most Shocking Moments
in Movie History.
I don’t know if that what was caused it but, after that, Donald
and I didn’t hang around much anymore. “Jansky is a baby chocolate caaaake” it
seemed, had simply disappeared. A couple years later, Donald graduated from 6th
grade and moved on to 7th at Walnut Hills Jr. /Sr. High School. I moved onto
6th grade and, upon graduation, went to St. Mary for Junior High.
After completing 8th grade at St. Mary, I attended
Purcell-Marian High School. It was there, in my freshman year, that I first met
Dave. A fellow freshman, we became acquainted through a mutual friend that I
knew from St. Mary. I initially found him to be a bit odd due to his
intelligence, but a sense of humor and a shared appreciation for Star Trek
helped us become friends.
During
my sophomore year and by way of my girlfriend at the time, I met Paul. He was a
junior and quite possibly the tallest person I’d ever met who was also within
my peer group. Possessed with creativity that I’m still somewhat envious of to
this day, Paul had a sense of humor unlike any I’d experienced before. And he
looked like David Bowie.
Paul, Dave, and I spent many a day discussing a variety of
topics ranging anywhere and everywhere from Monty Python to Japanese swordplay
to Star Trek. One day, during my junior year, we were at Paul’s house when Paul
told us of a computer game that he was having some trouble with. He couldn’t
get past a certain point in the text-based adventure game Star Trek: The Promethean
Prophecy and suggested we work together to try to figure it out.
We gathered around the computer and took turns being the
captain, meaning the one in control of the keyboard and entering any commands.
Paul was first, since it was his game and he had to familiarize us with the
game. He got to The Troublesome Point in which the Enterprise is being attacked
by a Romulan vessel. No matter what we tried, the enemy got the best of us, and
the Enterprise was destroyed. Game over.
Dave was next. Again, everything was fine and dandy up until The
Troublesome Point where, despite several more suggestions from Paul and me, the
Romulan enemy was victorious (again).
Finally, it was my turn. We wasted no time in getting to the
Troublesome Point. The three of us reviewed past actions taken and didn’t
thoughtlessly react to the events on the screen. During the battle, Spock
reports the presence of a “data image” moving in conjunction with the enemy
vessel. Paul suggested we fire torpedoes at the mysterious image. I typed the
command into the computer and Lo! And Behold…the Romulan enemy was destroyed.
From our excitement, you would have thought we had just cured cancer.
About
a month or so later, Dave and I were sitting next to each other at work passing
funny notes and drawings back and forth. The movie Spaceballs had recently been
released and had us in the mindset of creating parodies of Star Wars and Star
Trek. I liked the Eagle 5 (Winnebago Spacecraft) from Spaceballs and I asked
Dave, who was artistically inclined, to draw a picture of my car, a Volkswagen
Beetle, with Star Trek warp engines attached to it. He did and gave it the
following caption: Commanded by B.C. Cakes, the USS Entropy boldly goes where
no man has gone before.
I don’t ever remember telling Dave about “baby chocolate cake”
but, clearly, I must have. At first, I was all, “Dude! What the fuck, man? Baby
Chocolate Cakes?” but he thought it was fun and that I should get over it.
“Sure!” he said. “Make it something other than some sort of
dirty label.”
So that’s what I did. Paul and Dave and I created an entire Star
Trek parody universe, complete with short stories, several illustrations, and
even a soundtrack, revolving around the crew of the USS Entropy under the
command of B.C. Cakes.
The name has branched out into other areas as well. B.C. Cakes
is my login name on many website forums and blogs. It’s also my I.D. on the Playstation
Network.
Almost 40 years ago, Dave was right in re-saddling me with that
name. With the help of some good friends, I was able to take ownership of it
and define it instead of it defining me. It’s funny how a name that once made
me cry has become a name that I’m rather proud of.
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