Two of the three pictured have all but grown up, and the third never will.

Doo is for Doodle bug, who made us all laugh, Dandy, for Dandyman, and Biscuit, for the Biscuit, who told us what to do. For many years we played afternoons for as late as we could waiting for the boys’ mother to take them home.

Papa blows out the candles on his 90th birthday cake.

Lt. Col. Ben Frank Curtis was my father and the man we all called Papa. He was born in 1917 in Portland, Arkansas and died in Dallas, Texas in 2011 at the age of 93 from complications caused by a pulmonary embolus suffered after a fall he took while playing tennis.

Drew, my grandson, The Runner.

There once was a young boy who was different, and knew he was different.  He had trouble catching or kicking a ball and couldn’t write his name for beans or tie his shoes on the first try.  These things were pointed out to him by his friends who poked at him and made fun.