Names and things.......

Every so often someone will ask about the two screen names that I use.....cocatica and ticatoo. I use ticatoo for Paltalk. People are curious about why I chose these nicks, especially ticatoo. It is a long boring story, but since I am stuck in the room taking care of my sick son, I think I will tell it.

Years ago, when my brother and I were little, we played a form of tag where, if we were away from homebase, we could stop, say 'tickalock' and we would be safe, because our door would be locked. But, if we wanted to be truly safe we had to say 'tickalock-all-way-round', then our front and back doors would be locked.

Years passed and my brother had a falling out with the family and just disappeared. He got a job working at nuclear power plants around the country and traveled a lot, but he made no attempt to get in touch. I was devastated and tried to find him, but had no idea where to start. About twenty years ago, give or take, he called our oldest brother and came to visit. Things began to be sorted out and I was in heaven. Then, our mother did something that was so cruel, I am still stunned by it. My brother was trying to get custody of his youngest son from his ex-wife. And, he needed to. My sister-in-law was so enmeshed in her own mental illness, that she could not take care of the child. The conditions that child lived in was horrendous. My sister-in-law knew that as soon as the child left, she would no longer get the child support. She fought for full custody. Court time came, and my mother was a witness for her, instead of helping my brother help his son. My brother was so hurt and furious that our mother would do that, especially since she had never liked his ex-wife anyway. Plus, my mother knew the sort of living conditions my nephew was living in. My brother was so angry and hurt that our mother would do that, he disappeared again. He did not speak to my mother ever again.

During the second time my brother disappeared, I got my first computer. I signed up for AOL and tried to think of a good screen name. I thought too, that if anyone in our family would have a computer, Wayne (my brother) would. I wanted a screen name that he would recognize and check out. Yes, I know how silly that thinking was. Anyway, I decided to use tickalock, thinking that my brother would surely want to check it out if he ever came across it. Turned out that my brother had a computer, but did not like using it. His son did, but we never met up on AOL or any of the chat programs.

Time passed and tickalock was getting some unwanted attention, so I changed it up a little. But, I wanted to keep it similar so that people I had met would know it was me. So, we come to ticatoo. Aren't you glad I told you all this?