Two First Names

Barry Barry was used to being teased. Not only did he have two first names, but his parents were teachers in his school. His dad was the math teacher for grades four and five, and his mother was the art teacher for the entire grade school. Oddly, she had three first names—Evelyn Martha Barry but asked the kids to address her as Miss Martha. Go figure. 

Barry tried to keep a low profile during his grade school years. As an only child, he didn't have a sibling to tease or play with. Kids in his neighborhood weren't too eager to come over for fear they would be quizzed or would have to create something unusual. That's because Barry's household was an incubator for ideas and projects. Whiteboards adorned the dining room walls with erasable markers underlying math formulas that his father, Mr. Barry, was constantly working on.

The family room did not have a television, which was de rigueur in his neighborhood; instead, a large kiln was propped up near the fireplace on concrete blocks. When both were lit, it felt like an inferno in the room. Barry would escape to his room and read his comic books. They provided him with a means to not have to deal with equations or clay dust which sometimes clung to his dinner plate. His outlet for maintaining his own sanity was through the imaginary world of superheroes who could escape and survive all negative experiences.

Barry did survive. He went on to a middle and high school that served as magnet programs for high achieving students. The were a conduit for college admissions to exclusive colleges and programs. Recruiters sought him out for his articulation of his upbringing and double names. Some found them amusing, others challenging. He just thought of his two first names as two first names. 

When he won a Nobel Prize in Physics, he was asked who he was named after and "did it have some relevance to his success." He took his time, stroked his now graying beard, and replied... "To tell you the truth my comic books were my inspiration. Having two first names might have made me a loner or a perceived loser but in the world of cosmic heroes I could be different."

Barry Barry had two first names. Ironically, he married a woman whose first name was Carrie. As you might find amusing—they named their children Harry, Sherry, and Larry. Go figure. He had a sense of humor, after all.  And the origin of his double names? He never even bothered to ask his parents. They seemed too preoccupied in their own little worlds. It was enough to be able to enter his own cosmic realm and survive. And he did.