"Where's Tom, Dick or Mary?" I thought to myself.

Don't know where they are; but do know where they aren't. They are not on the list baby names of 2009 from the Bluffton Hospital.

It doesn't really matter that they aren't there. It's simply an observation that times change and names go with the times. While some of the names on the "born in 2009" list seem foreign to our ears, allow me to share some really foreign names.

Those born in 1949 and 1950. This translates to the Bluffton High School class of 1968. I ought to know. I'm part of it. Here are common the names we called ourselves and what we did about "guys with the same name." Generally, this trend of names was repeated in several classes ahead of us and behind.

To make things interesting, I've tossed in names from the class of 1969 in parenthesis. Not being in that class, I don't know how they decided who was Richard, Rick, Dick or Ricky, and so forth and so on.

The class of '68 had three Richards: Emmert, Ewing and Edinger. Because each had the last initial as "E" one became Rick, one Ricky and one remained Richard, but I can't recall the order. But, for some reason, none became "Dick." That would have occurred if there were four Richards, I suppose. (Class of '69: Montgomery, Brown and Bassitt).

There were five James: Heiks, Henry, Hilty, Dietler and Heininger. Again a problem: Three nad the last initial "H." So, one became Jim, one became Jimmy, one remained James, I can't recall what happened to the third, and one became Diety Bird. Apparently we ran out of options with Mr. D. (Class of '69: Hursey and Barnett).

There were "only" two Roberts: Everett and Holt. They were both Bob, because Robert Holt joined us in seventh grade from Beaverdam, and the names were already in place. (Class of '69 Klingler and Kohli).

There were two Ronalds: Moser and Benroth. (Class of '69: Suter).

There were two Donalds: Cochran and Moser. Don Cochran joined us also in junior high and "Don" was already cast on both. (Obviously, Donald was fading from the scene; the class of '69 had none.)

There were two Thomases: Mericle and Neidemire. (Class of '69: Chidester, Gossard and Schmidt).

There were two Larrys: Conrad and Eikenbary. (Class of '69: Stewart and Kinn).

There were two Stevens: Stratton and Sutter. Both had Ray as a middle initial. Go figure. (Class of '69: Basinger and Yant).

I will not attempt to list girl's names from this era, except for Mary. The class of '68 had three: Bixel, Herr and Baker. (Class of 69: Bogart (known as Mary "B" ) Hanthorn and Basinger.

As you can see, the names of babies born at mid-century in the Truman era were pretty repetitive and not terribly original. For some reason, all of these people are now 59 or 60. I can't understand why.