Bill versus Billy

Had a customer today who did the whole, "scan the name tag, then look you in the face" thing and then called me "Bill" even though the name tag says "Billy".  Which kind of made me do a take, because here in North Dakota, I'm Billy, back in California, I'm Bill and it got me to thinking about the differences between Bill and Billy.  And those differences do exist.

Bill
Bill is/was the subject of myth and legend.  Seriously.  A comment in passing at The Pit sent an entire crew of Bulletheads into high alert.  Bill didn't need to lock the door to the apartment in the fucking barrio, even though they were the token honky in the LITERAL projects.  As recently as a year (or so) ago, at a party, I met a new person and he was all, "I know who you are, man.  You're kinda legendary."  There is a lot to live up to as Bill.  Honestly, sometimes being Bill was/is kind of a chore.

Billy
Billy was who I was all through school.  Billy only recently resurfaced as I moved to North Dakota.  Billy is a "worker bee"  Billy is happy just being an awesome cog in the machine.  Billy is the one with MS. Billy is still an awesome human being, without a doubt, but Billy doesn't have the expectations/baggage that Bill does.  Not by a long shot.  Billy is also a lot less stressed out about things than Bill was.  That's for sure.  Billy is also a responsible fucker.  Billy pays his bills, shows up early for work, saves his cash.  Bill did NONE of those things.

So yeah, that about covers the differences between who Bill is and who Billy is, even though, I'm just one dude....