Nicknames

All Schmitzes have and make nicknames for everybody and everything. This is a sign of affection, generally speaking. One time a girl named Alexandra in our ward had to have her Mom come and talk to our MotherMom, because Schmitzes were calling her anything but Alexandra, and it was making her upset. How can you not make nicks for a name like Alexandra? The making of nicknames is ironic and especially dumb, since the MotherMom tried to give the children names specifically for the reason that they did not lend themselves to being shortened. This has not stopped anyone. The most dramatic story of Schmitz nicknames showing their staying power was when The Booster, AKA Micah, was in kindergarten. He was asked to write his full name down, and he wrote Micah The Booster Schmitz, because he thought that was actually his middle name, which it might as well be.