Random Thoughts
by Roger Condit
THE NAME GAME
We all have names. Some we like. Some we don't. Some we change.
Some are family names carried past the third and fourth generation. And some are exploited for all they're worth, whether for easy recognition, business purposes or just for the same reason we pay for coined names we have on auto license plates.
You can attract attention and easily be remembered if your name is Bill Dollar, Dusty Rhodes or Buck Rogers. You can gain credibility with names like Honest John, Reliable Ralph or Tru-Blu-Stu.
But let me tell you of a family named Hall that exploited their surname with given names that attracted attention, made them easy to remember and in one case, was used as an aegis.
I'll begin with Poole Hall, named after his maternal grandfather, Justin Poole. Growing up he was seldom found in places where he should be as opposed to where he often was. "Poole is down at the pool hall," they would tell his mama when she asked where he was.
Poole fell in love and married a sweet honey blonde named Dimah Danse. She was supposed to have been named "Dinah" but a typographical error on her birth record doomed her to become Dimah Danse Hall.
They raised one girl and three boys. The first, a girl, was conceived on their honeymoon in Philadelphia while visiting our nation's birthplace. They named her Independence Hall and called her Indy.
They were thrilled at the birth of their first son. And because she cared enough to have the very best, they named him for those classy greeting cards. He was christened Mark Hall.
Since Poole had served a hitch in the Marine Corps, he couldn't resist naming his second son for a line from the Marine Hymn. They called him--yeah, that's right--Montezuma Hall.
After several years of being unproductive, Dimah gave birth to their last son. He was a slow-growing and lovable tyke. They were stumped for a name for him, so they deferred the formality and just called him "The Little Hall Kid."
Being undersized the bigger kids would pick on him. They would see him coming and say, "let's go pick on the little Hall kid." Every day he came home bruised and his clothes a mess. Dimah would worry and worry about it. One day she was inspired with a wonderful solution to the problem.
She called Poole in and said, "Poole, honey, every day the big kids keep fightin' our little one. He comes home with his clothes a mess. I'm gonna do somethin' about it-"
"Watcha gonna do about it, Dimah, baby?"
"We're gonna give the kid a name. We're gonna name him Sydney Edward Hall and those kids will never fight with him again.,,
"Sweetheart, howls callin' him Sydney Edward Hall gonna keep the kids from fightin' him?"
"Well, we won't be so formal about his name. We'll call him 'Syd' for short and use his middle initial 'El instead of Edwin."
And so it was that everyone came to know: You can't fight Syd E. Hall!
Published July-August 1999, Alabama Prime
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