Maybe it’s not really my place to write about this, but being the historian of my life that I am, I must tell the tale of TTG. TTG was a friend of mine that I met in middle school. The year was 1996. I was a scared little boy in gym class. Like most academically inclined students, gym was my least favorite class, and in order to survive the scum-bags of education known as gym teachers, I was quick to ally with the other athletically inhibited students. One of which was TTG.
I quickly discovered that TTG and I shared a love of ”Star Wars”, and that gave us some things to talk about. I was even reading a ”Star Wars” novel at the time I met him, ”Star Wars: Dark Force Rising”, and we made a little game that the more ”Star Wars” books you read, the closer you were to become a Jedi. Five books meant you were a Jedi Knight, and ten books, Jedi Master. I eventually got to the Jedi Master level, exceeding TTG and making him jealous, I think.
Well from the friendship that began in gym class, TTG and I continued to be friends all throughout middle school and high school. We were in many of the Honors and AP classes together. TTG also convinced me to join Drama Club, even though I had very little interest in the theater. I had an okay time in the club, even though I only went to one meeting and didn’t show up for the yearbook picture. I did take a couple of years of Drama in high school under the influence of TTG, and kind of enjoyed it. TTG dreamed of some day becoming an actor. Before the ”Star Wars” prequels came out he told me of how he hoped some day he could be in them.
While I could go on about some of TTG’s odd quirks, that isn’t really my intent. What I want to do is talk about his name, TTG, for he was not always named TTG. His name was actually Travis. You might be thinking that his initials were TTG. They weren’t. His initials were TAG, which is only a one letter difference, but drastically different meanings. TTG actually stands for ”Tattle-Tale Gargoyle”. It wasn’t until years after I met Travis that I heard someone call him TTG. I found it quite shocking. TTG? I already knew his initials were TAG. So I asked him, “Why’d that guy call you TTG?” He looked to the ground with some embarrassment, hoping he wouldn’t have to explain, but knowing I wouldn’t be satisfied unless I got an answer, then said, “It stands for Tattle-Tale Gargoyle.” Of course, I asked him how that came to be his nickname.
The story still isn’t that clear to me. Probably because it didn’t make much sense as it was happening, so unfortunately I can only give the gist of how this name came about. Apparently, one time he tattled on someone. Or maybe he did it multiple times. It’s possible he was known as Tattle-Tale Travis briefly. When I say briefly, I mean maybe for one day in elementary school some kids teased him with the name or something. Either way, someone remembered that he had been a tattle-tale. Someone that went to our high school. The Gargoyle part is a little more interesting. I guess he was talking with someone during class and he just randomly said the word “gargoyle” really loud. Loud enough that it got the attention of the entire class. More importantly it got the attention of someone that knew he had been a tattle-tale. And thus, from Tattle-Tale Travis spawned Tattle-Tale Gargoyle. It certainly didn’t help him that his initials were TG. At least that’s my interpretation of the story.
How exactly the name came about is another matter. It may have been made up as soon as he said the word “gargoyle”, but I’ve also heard that he wrote his initials, TAG, on a notebook so badly that someone saw it and said, “What’s TTG?” Well that same person also knew he was a tattle-tale, and that he had once said the word gargoyle, so they quickly concluded that it stood for “Tattle-Tale Gargoyle.”
For a while I thought maybe he never actually said the word gargoyle, and that, in fact, someone accused him of looking like a gargoyle. I refuse to believe that that is the story, because, quite frankly, it makes too much sense, and it’s just plain mean.
In any case, he wasn’t exactly fond of the name TTG and would repeatedly point out that his initials were TAG. Despite his feelings, I liked the name, so I called him TTG from that day forth, much to his annoyance. Which brings me to the reason I am writing this blog today. No one remembers TTG’s nickname except for me, and so I feel it is my duty to document forever in the annals of the internet that there once was a guy named Tattle-Tale Gargoyle.
My love of the name TTG, however, was my downfall. I kept calling him TTG, and he kept telling me not to. Then one day, he just stopped talking to me. Just didn’t respond to me any time I’d say hello. That was it. I had ruined our friendship with the nickname that I liked so much. Calling him TTG had been more important to me than giving regards to his feelings. At this point he probably doesn’t even remember that I’m not the one that gave him the name, it was someone else, but since I used it more than anyone else, he probably thinks I made it up. Of course, I can’t explain this to him, since he won’t even talk to me anymore.
At least I think that’s why TTG stopped talking to me. There is one other possibility. When the ”Star Wars” prequels came out I stopped liking ”Star Wars”, and TTG would always try to argue with me that they weren’t so bad. But the fact was they were so bad that I hated all of ”Star Wars”, not just the prequels, and maybe, just maybe that’s why TTG stopped talking to me. I say this because I remember the last conversation I ever had with him back in 2006. He said, “Don’t call me TTG, it’s not my nickname. And you should see ”Star Wars Episode III”, it’s really good.” I said, “I don’t want to. I think ”Star Wars” is stupid now.” He repeated, “See ”Star Wars III”,” then turned and walked away. He never said another word to me again.
Thus is the tale of Tattle-Tale Gargoyle. He is a truly great man, but it saddens me that his children will never know of his true name of TTG unless they stumble across this blog.