On this day 70 years ago, five years prior to the commencement of Operation Mogul, Odie and Carrie Tharp of Roswell, New Mexico (proper) welcomed a baby boy into the world and named him Thor Wayne.

The name only stuck for an hour or so.  After the couple came around from the overwhelming joy on the arrival of their newborn baby boy, they had two epiphanies.

The first one was that people not named or familiar with the name “Tharp” often mispronounced it as “Thorp”.  To hear the name “Thor Wayne Tharp” (more commonly  Thor Tharp) get perpetually mispronounced as Thor Thorp could bring too much to bare for all of the Tharps in general.  It would sound like the person inadvertently butchering the name of “Tharp” was stuttering.  Add to that the potential for indiscriminate spitting by those who couldn’t handle the correct execution of the “th” sound due to an improperly shaped tongue or lack or 21st century orthodontics.

Kids are cruel, and back in 40’s when sensitivity for the feelings of others was just a little too namby-pamby, there was an immediate concern that young Thor would succumb to a bunch of crap from his peers that he probably didn’t need.

On the other end of the spectrum, the name of Thor could carry an aura of general badassness.  Imagine notes sent home from school to Mr. and Mrs. Tharp (most likely misspelled as “Thorpe”) which explained how Thor had spent a better part of his time on the playground pulling pigtails, dispensing purple nurples, and generally causing a whole lot of trouble.

The Tharps didn’t need a wimp or a bully.

The other epiphanic thump on the head the new parents embraced was the fact that they were Christians.  Naming their first born after a Norse God would probably bring up some questions at Bible study.

And so, Odie and Carrie (both of whom really liked the name Thor) opted to go with the moniker they had originally planned to name their boy, which was Edward.

Edward Tharp.  E.T.

You just had an epiphany, didn’t you?

E.T. was born in Roswell, New Mexico in the 40’s.

Coincidence?

I’ll let you decide, even though I know the truth.

Thor…. Um Ed went on to have a few kids later on down the line, one of which has chosen to exercise his creativity by writing eye popping, jaw dropping, blog posts on the internet which are primarily loaded up with quarter truths (at best) and outlandish claims which represent nothing but delusions of grandeur.

For all of that, the whole crew here at TharpSter.Org offers up a Hee-Haw style salute to one of it’s founding members.

Happy Birthday Dad!