My Dad's Boss
	For decades my family either worked at, or out of, the Farmer's Market on Hillsborough Avenue. Our dad was a produce salesman for a large company, The Diamond, Tager Wholesale Produce Co. My dad's direct boss was a man called Shorty Diamond. J. Lynn Diamond was his actual name. He never let anyone know what the J stood for. He just preferred Shorty. Mr. Diamond was very kind to my parents and voluntarily helped them whenever they needed it. They had five children and times were hard and he seemed to be understanding of that. In 1942 their sixth child was born and they named him Jerry Lynn Ash (J. Lynn Ash). They didn't know what Shorty's J stood for so they chose Jerry for me. As early as I can remember, I didn't want the name Jerry. It felt like it and I were like two opposite magnets pushing away from each other. As soon as I was old enough to understand writing, I wanted to change the r's to s's and make it Jessy. At that young age I didn't know how to go about doing anything about it. I just knew I wanted Jessy. My brother, Tommy, who was ten years older than I was said, "If you want to be called Jessy, I'll call you that. A few years later, Shorty Diamond died. In his obituary was a very nice photograph of him with his name below it, Jessy Lynn Diamond. To this day, almost seventy years later, my brother, Tommy still calls me Jessy. Lynn Ash