Story behind the name......

Big Fin said:
My Mom's family is mostly Swede and Norwegian. My Dad's side is mostly Finn, with a slight bit of Swede. If you spend time in northern MN, you will come to learn that the Finns are the brunt of all ethnic jokes. They were the last to land in MN, so all the good jobs were taken by the Swedes and Norwegians. Thus the old statement, "Get a Finn to do it. Those dumb bastards will do anything."

Never missing a chance to ridicule me, my Mom's two youngest brothers, both of whom were close to my age, my Finn heritage became a prime target for them to make sure I understood that their Norwegian and Swede mix was far superior to my Finn mongrelism.

I quickly sprouted past them in size. By the time I was age 8 and they were 9 and 11, I was three or four inches taller. I thus became nicknamed by them as "The Big Finn." Then they started making Tom Sawyer jokes of me, as my Dad had a serious drinking problem, the same as Twain's fictional Huckleberry Finn. At times I was also known as "Huck." When I would catch fish, they would call my catch "The Big Fins," making a joke on the words.

When @Moosie started this forum, I had just come back from a trip to Alaska, where these uncles now live. Time had passed, but to them I am still "The Big Finn." So, with that name still fresh in my mind, that is the handle I started using here, albeit, spelled slightly differently.

To those college roommates that spent time with me, and these two uncles also as roommates, I am often referred to simply as "Finn."

Not sure if the handle makes any sense 20 years after joining the forum, but like a lot of names, once you go with it, that's what you're stuck with. So, Big Fin it is. Thanks to my Mom's brothers, Jimmer (Gregory James) and Boog (David Wayne).
Click to expand...
Seems like there's an opportunity here for a SvenandOle persona...,
 
Big Fin said:
Toivo and Oivo are the two Finn sidekicks in all our jokes.
Click to expand...
I grew up in southern MN and never heard of them. Ole and Sven (Norwegian) jokes were ubiquitous. Funny how a couple hundred miles makes such a big difference, even within a state.
 
My original username (Gussyfarm) was what my buddies called our farm growing up, couple of them still do. My new username is just my first name and a shorten version of my last name.
 
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