After covering symbols, Bobby Tony reviews labels | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Symbols will offend some but labels really irritate the hell out of others.

    All my life, I have had to content with labels assigned to me by others. Most of my childhood I was known by a variety of labels which they tried to convince me were just nicknames. If I got in trouble in the neighborhood it was always, "It was Red's Kid" (My Dad was a red headed Irishman). On the other hand, if I did something good it was "That is Eda's boy". (Mom was a black headed Italian).

    During my military career I went through several labels, recruit, FNG, grunt, REMF, short timer and finally civilian. There were quite a few more labels but I do not count them because they were also represented by symbols like Sargent stripes, Combat Infantry Badge etc.

    I endured the freshman, sophomore, junior, senior labels during college. I carried that last one "senior" for several years while Uncle Sam was paying my tuition under the GI bill. When he stopped paying, I finished my college career with the label "drop out".

    Forty years with a company provided a long list of labels, most of which they insisted I put on my calling card. I went through Sales Representative, Transmissioneer, Account Manager, Sales Engineer, Senior Sales Engineer, Area Manager, and Application Engineer ending with the best one "Retiree". That last one was not put on a company card but I had some made up just because it had become a habit. Just so you don't think I am bragging here, the job stayed the same the whole time it was just that we had some creative middle managers that I labeled as "overhead". Most had never been in front of a customer and some I do not think ever saw anything but pictures of our products.

    For the last 11 years since retirement, I have been labeled old fart, ROMEO, the old man, curmudgeon and probably many others that were said upon my leaving a room.

    Since my posting on this site starting in May 2015 it has been hinted that my label should be----- hate filled, racist, mean spirited, greedy, ultra conservative and several more I can't remember now. I prefer my self-assigned label. "Clown"

    I have learned to accept all these labels in life because all labels are just someone else's perception of what you are. Labels allow us to pigeonhole someone into categories based on our perception of their thoughts and beliefs.

    Now I have a former classmate who just about goes ballistic if you use certain labels about him. That only leaves me once course of action. To use that label every chance I get.

    A quick review of all the above labels assigned to me would indicate that I have lived a varied life. Some of them were true and some of them were not.

    It is just my hope that when I finally arrive at the Pearly Gates and ask for admission, Old Saint Peter doesn't say:

    "I HAVE LOOKED OVER THIS ADMISSION LIST SEVERAL TIMES AND I DON'T SEE ANY BOBBY TONY LISTED HERE".

    But St Pete that was just a label.