When Harold Dooney and Henrietta Wiggins were teenagers in the '50's, they ran off together after church one Sunday, went over the state line to Alabama, and got married. Henrietta, whom everyone called Henny, was strong willed and smart, whereas Harold was longsuffering and patient, so they got along like a house afire.

Henny had pretensions, so when she delivered a son exactly nine months after the marriage, she named him William Shakespeare (Dooney.)
No one knew William's middle name was Shakespeare until the 4th grade, when the teacher came in and opened her desk drawer and a bullfrog jumped out, causing her to shriek, back up into the blackboard and knock her glasses off. The teacher knew the culprit's identity from previous experience. She picked up her glasses, and flushed, she sternly said "William Shakespeare Dooney, if you ever do that again I'm going to paddle you right here in front of everybody, them I'm going to send you to the principal's office and he'll paddle you, and when you get home your parents are going to paddle you again. Understood?" William nodded, and never did it again--he was too embarrassed to have a teacher ever drag out that Shakespeare name again.

Harold and Henny's second son she named Winston Churchill (Dooney.) The boy expected a lot of attention from his parents, and after an illness when he was four that kept him in bed for weeks, he was spoiled by his mother. She made chicken noodle soup every day as per doctor's instructions, and Winston ate it up and got well. Thereafter, he whined for "noodles" and wouldn't eat anything else. Henny worried over him, and no matter what she had cooked for the family, when Winston pouted and sulked and wanted noodles, she made some kind of noodle dish for him. Everyone started calling him "Noodles."

Then when summer came, Henny fell off the roof patching roofing tiles, and was laid up for a month in the hospital. Her mother, Granny Chumley "Chum" came to take care of the family. She laundered and cooked and canned tomatoes and scrubbed floors and boys ears. She lay out delicious meals for Harold and the boys, and Winston would sulk and pout for noodles. Granny Chum kissed the top of his head "We don't always get what we want, she said, and we don't have any noodles. Eat up so you can help Mommy when she gets home." And she never mentioned it again. Pouting and sulking and not eating didn't bother her. After a few days, Winston went to the frige and ate cold collards and corn on the cob, and that was the end of noodles.

Granny Chum saddled Winston with a nickname that lasted all his life-she called him "Winnie," because Winston sounded too stuffy, she said. Some acquaintances didn't know his real name was Winston Churchill until they saw his obituary. Well, it was better than being called "Noodles" all his life.

susil