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. Our games required stacks of insulation board, rolls of duct tape, queen-sized blow up air mattresses (several through the years), swords, wands, and light sabers (continually changed with new episodes), and lots of imagineering. Really cheap stuff.
Each day started in my garage workshop where we would build whatever was needed for the Biscuit’s choice of game, Hogwarts Castle, the rebel base, the death star, the Millennium Falcon, and the occasional dinosaur journey. Followed by a blowing up of the bouncy thing (air mattress) for the floor of wherever the game would end in a hand to hand battle which invariably left the Biscuit and his chief minion (little brother, Doo) alive and victorious and me, the universal villain, dead and destroyed. Then we would hustle our surviving props into the work room, repair our bouncy thing with duct tape (if needed and if possible), and begin planning the next day’s adventure over a beverage, Dr.Pepper for the Biscuit and me, and for Doo, chocolate milk, drunk on our back porch swing amidst a blow by blow recalling of their life and death struggle with Darth or Voldemort.
The Biscuit is now in film school, studying to be a cinematographer and, still telling everybody what to do. Doo is a six-foot, two-inch tall high schooler on the track team, on the student council, in the drama club, and he is still making everyone laugh. And I’m still Dandy. Two of the three have all but grown up, and the third never will. Cheap but priceless.
Look for the fun in everyday, and it will find you.
Dandyman