|
Frank Cotolo
February 29, 2024 |
  |
In this column I will be writing about different topics now and then. My name is Kemo. I have no
first or middle name and I have no proof Kemo is the family name so let's leave it at that.
|
  |
My parents named me Chemistry because they swore it was the first word I said. My father also
named our dog Chemistry.
|
  |
Chemistry the dog and I ran in fields and swam in streams but Chemistry the dog drowned in a
deep stream and died. I didn't die.
|
  |
Grade school teachers would call my name and the kids would raise their hands as if the sound of
my name was a question and each one of them wanted the teacher to pick him or her because each
one thought he or she had the correct answer.
|
  |
In middle school I shortened my name to Kemo and yet in the alphabetical school records my
name still came up under C.
|
  |
When I was drafted my sargeant called each soldier by his last name first and first name last. It
was funny to the other soldiers when he shouted, "Kemo Kemo". When I told him Kemo was short for
Chemistry and it was the only name I used he said, "All right then, private Kemo Kemo, get in the
back of the line."
|
  |
When I was a civilian again I got a job for a company that developed medicines solely because my
original name was Chemistry. That's when I found out Chemistry is "the science dealing with the
identification of the substances of which matter is composed and the investigation of their
properties and how they interact, combine and change; and the use of these processes to form
new substances.
|
  |