Imaginary Friends

My dad has often talked about how much he LOVED his bed when he was a little kid and how he would pretend the foot of the bed was his bunker and he'd have pretend battles like Davy Crockett. It was a metal frame bed with a rounded end, so that he could peek between the slats and lay his enemy to waste. When he was a very little boy he created an imaginary friend named Millie. Millie was a boy and he was completely convinced Millie was real. They played together a lot and good 'ole Millie would always be the last to die in the battles he played. He was George Russell to his Davy. About a year after Millie came into his life another boy named Janice was invented when he was down in the basement one day. He just decided that Janice would be part of their group. Then Clauken came a little later as he was playing outside and realized he needed a third. These three boys, though imaginary, were his best pals and would join him when he played. But, as Davy Crockett, many of his boys were dying, so he eventually created another group of 3 friends. They weren't nearly as important as Millie, Janice, and Clauken, but were still part of his circle. They were Chicken, Micken, and Thicken. They came along when he was around 5 or 6. He played with all of them until he was 8 yrs old or so, but by that time had come to understand they weren't REALLY real. But, they were too much fun to push aside. This was all before they had a tv, so he didn't just sit and watch cartoons all day like the kids of today. He used his imagination and had a lot of fun doing it, it seems. :-) Sometimes his brother Carl would join him and they'd push their beds together (they shared a room downstairs that later became my grandma's room) and fight and wrestle and have their battles. They used their toy guns and rifles to fight against their foes and, of course, Davy would always be the victor. No one really knows what happened to these loyal friends of his. They probably left dad once they realized that he had named them after girls and farm animals. But, they were his faithful comrads in arms for many years and filled my dad's days with fun. If I remember, I'll ask him whatever happened to that bed, that saw so many bloody sieges. Maybe it was donated to a war museum for its valiance in staying in one piece after the many, many battles inflicted on it by one creative little boy. But, that's the first glimpse into the life of my dad. And, now when you see him talking and there's no one in the room, you won't think he's crazy, you'll just think "hmmm..I wonder if Clauken has returned?".