I was there!

Recently, I asked my Canadian-born teen-aged son if he had a nickname in high school. He looked a bit askance at me. I could have told him that, in my day at Queen’s, you did not go through high school without a nickname; it was part of the ritual.

Let me tell you how Burnham got his – “Odo”. Usually scholarship winners entered Queen’s in the second form. I am talking about Brickdam Queens, at the top of Brickdam by Vlissengen Road.

We lowly Second formers had been promoted to Third form at the end of the academic year, but Burnham had entered in the Third form either on a Blair or a Mitchell scholarship.

At this time Third form was to the left of the front door on the first floor. We were doing History one afternoon, N. E. Cameron was our History master whom we called “Cammy”. Later, I found out that he was also called “Nebo”. In any event, “Cammy” called on Burnham to read, but Burnham did not know where we were and began to read a paragraph that made reference to ODO Bishop of Bayeux. “Cammy” dismissed him with a sort of “Cha! Boy. How can you be so stupid?”. We all began to laugh; and called Burnham “ODO” As you know the name stuck.

Recently, I was reading Theodore H. White’s book, “In search of History”. White is well-known for his “Making-of-a-President series. In this book he mentions ODO, Bishop of Bayeux and it all came back.

I too had a nickname. I hated it; but when Calliste Francis died in Sudbury a few years back, I sent flowers “From (nickname) and family”. You see, Calliste, who was Dr. O.M. Francis’ son and Cecelia Francis’s brother, was a school mate of mine at the Broad Street Government School under E.Lugard Dolphin. We went to Queen’s where I got my nickname; then on to McGill. Every year or frequently, I got a Xmas card from Calliste addressed to “nickname”.

So nicknames were part of the culture of the school and the ritual. At this Xmas time, I think fondly of my chum Calliste Francis, but my son and his chums are “dot com” youngsters--- and Queen’s is “Thomas Lands and dot com”. Ah well!!!.