The origin of Len

Ever since I can remember, I have always been addicted to giving people a nickname. For some reason, I don't call any of my friends by their government name. If we are close friends, chances are that I call you by a pseudonym. My closest of friends have multiple nicknames. If you were to scroll through the list of contacts on my cell phone, you would wonder what planet I lived on. That is because you would find names like "Third" and "Wizzle". All of my close family members have nick names too. My mother is "C.R." and she is married to "Ricky Martin". My brothers are "Bruce or Ban" and "Lenald or Len".

Believe me, they all have perfectly good explanations for such. Every time my mother gets an invoice or any type of professional related document in the mail, it has always addressed to "C.R.", instead of Catherine. I have no idea why and for some reason I have never bothered to ask. My brother Dave has always been "Bruce", for two reasons. First of all, it is his middle name. But the main reason is because of his similarities to Bruce Banner.

Bruce Banner is the mild-mannered gentleman who becomes The Incredible Hulk when he gets very angry. It is much like Clark Kent is the human version of Superman. Anyways, my brother Dave has always been the "Jekyl and Hyde" type, much like Brue Banner. My brother Ian has been "Len" because of a funny (Its funny now anyways) story from when we were kids.

Up until the end of 6th grade, I had a bit of a speech impediment. I used to have a difficult time  producing the "R" sound. It was very embarrassing at times, I hated it. Anyways, this one day when I was about 7 and Ian was 10, we were at church. We were in a Sunday school class and the teacher took attendance each week. On this particular week, he didn't call my name and so I got concerned. I told him that he forgot me, and he asked me for my name. I told him my name and he said "Lenalds"? And then he began scanning his attendance list. I quickly corrected him, but he again heard;"Lenalds" due to my speech problem. He told me that he didn't have me on his attendance sheet. I kept telling him that it is Dan "Reynolds", but he kept saying "Lenalds".
I was getting very frustrated. Meanwhile, my brother Ian is literally standing 1 foot away from me, laughing hysterically. I pleaded with him; "Will you please tell him my name"? I felt like I was speaking a foreign language. I can't imagine how frustrating it must have been for my immigrant friends growing up.
My brother just kept laughing and saying "Lenalds". Eventually, he told the guy my last name, but he never let me live it down. From that point on, he has always referred to me as "Lenald", or just "Len". Then, for some reason I started calling him "Lenald" too.
Anyways, when I was in 6th grade, they made me take a speech class. I hated it because they would force me to go during study hall two days per week. I never went and so they would have to call me out of study hall each time. It was really embarrassing to get called out for it, I always felt like an idiot for having to go. But looking back at it now, I'm glad that they made m go. When I see grown folks who have a speech impediment, they look silly. It I difficult to look past it with some people, they seem less intelligent for some reason.