Bubbalo Bill
Two traditions with special memories come together here: "Bubbalo Bill" and "The Thing."
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Bubbalo Bill was the main character in improvised bedtime stories that became a pleasant expected ritual before Larry said good night to his kids.
Bubbalo Bill was a bubble who ate soap, drank shampoo and had conditioner for dessert. He could do heroic things because he could instantly change his shape at will, and he knew everything. He could make himself into a piece of gum stuck under a bus seat or a balloon bigger than Texas. He eventually married Bubbalo Jill, and they had Bubbalo Gil. They all had similar powers, except only Bubbalo Bill knew everything.
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Each night the kids could pick three things that would then appear in the story, and they fought slumber waiting to see how or if that would happen. Sarah, usually sucking her thumb, sometimes dozed off before the end.
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"The Thing" got its name from separate pieces Hillery, Sarah and Jesse would on occasion compose, based upon an agreed theme. Then they would take turns to read aloud in a family setting "This Thing That Would Make Mom Cry."
On Father's day, 2005, they wrote me a "Thing" about Bubbalo Bill, and of course, it made me cry.
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I am so happy I found these "Things" on a hard drive that patiently waited for me to find them.
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Here they are:
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Hillery's "Thing." (editor's note: the reference to "Aki rubs" and "grainy ghosts" -- these were, respectively, robust neck rubs or grinding clockwise motions made with the fist into one's back. I would string out the length of a story in exchange for these ministrations from any child willing to play along.)
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A photo purportedly of Bubbalo Bill, Bubbalo Jill and Bubbalo Gil as they hover over Vashon Island. Its authenticity is questionable.
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