Why Mean Henry?

The "Mean Henry" story is really pretty dull. I should probably create some incredibly evil source for the name; but that would be playing into the hands of the dark side. (Can a "side" have hands?)

When I was about 10 years old and my little brother (the Henry in question) was 5 or 6 we spent a lot of time together. My mother had a new baby, and my two older brothers were teenagers very busy removing themselves from interaction with the rest of the family when at all possible. Having lost his status of youngest (and, therefore, his beloved mother's "baby"), Henry hung around me, and a lot of the time I didn't mind as I was semi-in-charge of him (as in "babysitting") which made me feel very important and grown-up. In those oh so olden days our family of 7 (2 parents and 5 children) had supper together every single night... at the dining room table... with silverware and napkins... and real just-prepared-in-the-kitchen food. We had family conversation. If it was a good night, and my father hadn't had too many drinks and wasn't picking on my mother or one of my two older brothers, we would play word games, or 20 questions, or just add to a general conversation. It seemed that whenever I would talk about my day, it usually included something that I had done with Henry in tow; and I would begin with "Me an' Henry went..." or "Me an' Henry had...." (So my grammar was not the best at age 10.) My father, who considered himself an incredible wit, started calling my brother "Mean Henry" and would ask me what Mean Henry and I had been up to.

I have to thank my father for indelibly stamping the correct vs. incorrect use of the pronouns "I" and "me" as sentence subject or object. I sometimes cannot stop myself from correcting relatives, friends, and strangers (and t.v./radio commentators and politicians-- lots of politicians-- although they cannot hear my disapproval).

Henry was and is the least "mean" (in every sense of the word) of all the 5 siblings. My two older brothers were truly mean. They could be illustrations for the word "mean" in the dictionary-- two pictures: 1) older brother Dick whose Indian burns and wrenching of little arms would illustrate the physical side of "mean;" and 2) older brother Binky who perfected the art of mental "mean" by tying up and locking his small sister in a closet for hours and enjoyed nothing better than hiding under her bed to rise up in the dark just as she was falling asleep with a hideous "Mwah-ah-ah-aaaaaaah!" laugh. Who needed the bogeyman? I had brothers.

Irony.