Duuuuude. . . a’iiiiight. . . yeah, processin’ this just a little here. . . ya see, memories are tweakin’ and firing and blowin’ up like fireworks inside this head a’sudden!
Like the time a wind kicked up and I was maken’ to head out with my buds’ when Dad comes along saying, “Boy, I think you’re a tad small to be hanging with those boys. I think you should stay right here under this leaf where Mom and I put you.”
A tad small??!! I looked up at him in shock! But he wasn’t gonna budge, you know how Dad’s can be at times.
He looked down at me, put another leaf around me and turned me to look across a vast valley. . . I’ll never forget the view!
“Son,” He said, “Doesn’t that view make you feel a tad small inside?” I blinked, trying to take it all in. He resumed, “See that bird off in the distance?” He waved with another leaf. I followed his gaze and saw a Magpie on the otherside of some trees.
“Son, if that bird spots you, you’re a gonner! Because of your size, you are the perfect target for that bird to have a juicey little snack!”
Now I shuddered. Ya see, I’d heard the stories of how other Kinnikinic never came home from some outings on the wind, eaten by birds, bears, even deer.
Now here was the Pops in this little moment gazing across that massive valley.
“Son, a big reason I don’t want you out there, is because you’re a tad redder than everyone else. You’d be spotted so easily, they’d just snap you off your stem faster than you could scream! I’m just a tad concerned that if you ever go out, you’ll never come back. . . ”
Well, unbeknownst to me, two of my buddies and their friends hadn’t gone out either that windy day and were hangin’ nearby hearing every word Dad spoke. Dad adjusted his leaves, turned his attention elsewhere and I found myself facing my friends. They were chuckling . . .
“a tad huh?” said one.
“just a tad small” said another.
“you’re a tad redder than everyone else” said the third, who I was closest to at that point in life.
A fourth bearberry with his face buried in his leaf loudly muffled out, “Dat’s yer name now kid! From now on, yer gonna be called TAD!”
Oh how I wanted to bury my head and hide. . . but. . . Tad it became. Mom wouldn’t have it though, she’d called me little Nikki from the time I was a flower, and Dad always insisted his boys carried on the family name. So my name became Nikki Tad Dawson from that day forward.
Fast forward to this past weekend, no one here knew my childhood, and a star needs a name that people will remember, so no way no how was I going to let childhood memories cloud a perfectly good upcoming career. I NEEDED a name! A name with STAW POWWAAA!
Turns out. . . even humans look at me and think of the names I was given in childhood. . . a’iiight a’iight a’ight! I give. . . I give. . . Just call me Tad, Nik Tad Dawson, but I’m warnin’ ya. . . I’m a tad snarky at times, a tad sarcastic, a tad snippy sometimes, and just a tad on the rebellious side.
See ya across the valley!