Yay, this thread again!
I am neither a bob nor a duck, and yet I'm a little of both.
Ah, waves of memories dating back to 2003 are flooding my brain now...
**lets it soak in** Way back when there were some people who thought I was smart!
Anyhow
My username has a few points of origin. They all fit together, so don't ask questions until I'm done... That means YOU.
1. My dad is an old fashioned type. Possibly because he's also old. He's the traditional old-fashioned American Ettiquite, treat a lady nice kind of guy. Holding doors and chairs and things, you know. So, one day, I was at the doctor's office, and I was in a rush to get back to my car. As I rushed out the door and let it close behind me, I waited for my Dad to come up to the car. He comes out, furious, and I don't know why, but apparently I had let a door slam in some old lady's face. He let me know in more than a few words that I ALWAYS hold the door open for people. So, from that point on until a couple years back when it kind of wore off, I did... Obsessively. For everyone... To the point that my parents would get angry with me at theaters, as I'd hold the door open for everyone leaving the movie. Ah, good times.
2. I had a generic name I'd use when I didn't have a name for a guy. I'd call him Frank. Well, my friend had the same sort of habbit. He'd name characters in RPGs or random people the same thing: Bob, which was his Biological father's name. For some reason, I dropped Frank and Picked up Bob. Frank is now my secondary name. (For girls, I use Mary. Bob, Frank, and Mary) I started using Bob all the time, and it became a part of the "random, but not really, Luke (my real name)"
3. In 2001, I was doing a Summer program I didn't really want to do, it was a last resort (that, or go home, and going home sounded like torture) I was in a bad mood a lot, and I was really jealous of some guy because he got a lot of attention from Girls. That's beside the point, but even when I was angry, I'd do my door-holding thing... Even for people I was angry with. On one particularly angry afternoon, I held the door open for this girl that I had liked (and, of course, wasn't liked back) and she said "Thanks."
I was tired of people saying thanks... It felt empty. Why thank someone for something like that. I told her "That's like saying thank you to a duck for quacking." So she responded (She was quite the interesting individual) "Ok, duck. Thank you for quacking." So a bit later, probably that day but possibly a day or two later, I was holding the door open for a different girl, a counselor at the camp I was program staff on, and she said thank you. I replied "Hi. My name's Bob. I'm a duck." She said "So you are no longer Luke the man, but you are Bob the Duck." I said "It's my secret identity. Like Superman... And if I take my glasses off, I'm Clark Kent." That girl ended up being my girlfriend for a while. I called her Lois. She called me Clark and Bob, alternatively. I used to salute all the time, but her kids couldn't salute, they just kind of put their arms against their heads. So I did that and said "Quack" but she said I sounded like the Aflac duck... So we started saying "Aflac" to each other, and she got her kids to do the same thing. Ah, good times.
Here's a pic of me (red shirt) with her on my left in the pic (my right) and my friend Nate on the far right of the pic (my far left) doing the aflac salute.
Memories... Like the corners of my mind.