Why Bubba?

Webster defines Bubba as a stereotypical nickname of Southern white males. I believe that stereotypes are in the eye of the beholder. What you think it means is really up to you. For me, there is nothing stereotypical about the name.

For those that don’t know the details, there are six children in the lineup of my family and I am number three. I have two older sisters and was followed by two more girls and one baby brother. I don’t think it was until I had a younger sister that I was called anything but Kerry Wayne. However, the earliest memory I have of someone calling me Bubba was by my sister just older than I, Sherry Lynn.

I had to be four or five years old and it was in the late spring in our hometown of Waurika. Daddy was tilling his garden plot and, I was walking behind him barefooted in the cool Oklahoma dirt trying to step only in the tracks he left with his boots. I don’t remember what she wanted or why she called my name, but I remember she called out Bubba and, I remember she was talking to me.

Some 43 plus years later, she still calls me Bubba. The nieces and nephews call me Bubba or Uncle Bubba. When talking to the children about me, Momma and Daddy even call me Bubba. So you see, Bubba to me is a term of endearment that means big brother, uncle, son – FAMILY. Only one person outside of my immediate family uses this name on a regular basis. I am, however, proud to call her family and it thrills me more than they will ever imagine knowing that their precious little one also knows me as “Uncle Bubba.”

You can call me Bubba if you like. But I can tell in your voice if you are comfortable saying it, and I can tell if it comes from the heart.

Bubba