The first day of school and they all wore their names
On a tag that was pinned to each shirt.
Their mothers saw to it that they wore their best
And their faces were washed clean of dirt.

As they boarded the bus the driver would write
On the back of each name tag, a note,
That would tell where each child got onto the bus
Then he pinned on their shirts what he wrote.

The kindergarten teacher would read each tag
And carefully call each child by name.
She asked that the mothers write what they were called
So that she could call each child the same.

Not all names were simple like Mary and Dick.
There were nicknames like Moonbeam and Rock.
The teacher had seen many strange names before
Like a pretty little girl named, Doc.

But the parents who named this cute little boy
Sure deserve to be given a hand.
‘Cause there looking up with a bright shining face
Was a boy that was named, Fruit Stand.

The teacher just smiled as she called him by name.
But the little boy stared straight ahead.
You must pay attention whenever you’re called,
And answer politely, she said.

She was so intrigued by the sound of his name
That she called on him often that day.
The kids liked it too. She heard it used loudly
When all of them went outside to play.

At the end of the day she took them outside
To line up and to get on the bus.
Each knew where to sit and they all seemed to know
That the name of the driver was Gus.

When Fruit Stand got on, the driver just chuckled
And gave him a pat on the back.
Your tag is on backwards let’s turn it around
Or no one will know your name’s Jack.

All of our children enjoy the same type of humor that I do, though Ruth doesn’t always concur. Our middle son Jon, an MD, first told me the story of Fruit Stand. His wife Michelle is a kindergarten teacher, and taught until they started their family; she has had some interesting experiences involving unusual names.

I thought that it was a cute story and, of course, it had the kind of ending that I always like.

The moral of the story is that we should be careful about attaching labels. It’s too easy to accept what others say about an individual, rather than forming our own opinion. In any case, being known as Fruit Stand surely wouldn’t help a kid’s social standing; remember ‘The Boy Named Sue’?

If it hadn’t been for Gus, poor Jack might have gone for weeks with the wrong label. Everyone needs a Gus from time to time in our lives.