Who am I anyway?

So Scott got us to thinking about who our characters were. What are their real names? What was their home life like, etc. So I did some thinking on the way home and below is the story of Doody (as I see it):

I was born David Christopher Dudek. I never knew my dad (my real dad anyway), hell my Mom probably didn’t know him either. She went to a party one night and got a little sloshed and wound up going all the way with a sailor who was on leave. She came from a good, polish family and when they found out she was prego they kicked her out. It was June of 1941 and she was all of 17 and she was on her own. I was born on March 22, 1942. Mom tried her best to raise me on her own. The old lady she rented the apartment from watched me when mom went to work. She was a clerk at the five and dime and that’s where she met the guy I would soon know to be my dad.

Vern (the man she eventually married) was never a warm man and he definitely didn’t like me. He worked at a local cannery and would always go out drinking after work. Mom usually tried to make sure I was in bed before he got home, because it was inevitable that they would fight. One day he left for work and never came back so it was me and mom again. I was 8 at the time... Time to be a “man” as mom put it.

It was about this time I met Roger (my next door neighbor)  Mom worked a lot and when she came home she would always have “gentleman callers” over so I was sent out to play a lot. Mom drank quite a bit and always has a hard time getting up in the mornings. She tried though. Once a year, on the first day of school, she got up and fixed my lunch for me. Roger’s Dad worked a lot also, so we were both left to our own devices a lot after school. We got into a heap of trouble together... Just boy stuff, nothing serious.  Roger called me Doody from day one (making fun of my last name after I cut a big fart), and the nickname has stuck to this day.

Apparently the whole neighborhood knew about my Mom’s “extracurricular activities” but no one talked about it... even Roger and me. For the longest time Roger and I were each other’s only friends. We even made up our own little handshake and had a clubhouse (it was really just an old box). And so it went all the way to high school. Roger became the funny one and I was always pretty shy (around everyone but Roger) and he eventually joined the Burger Palace Boys gang. He told them my story and they all agreed to take me under their wings. As it always was with me and Roger, he made friends and I came along by proxy. So I had friends.

Because of my Mom being who she was, I never had much respect for women, until I met Francessca (Frenchy). I was smitten by her but never had the guts to say anything. She was different from the rest of the Pink Ladies. We eventually dated for a bit but lost touch after high school. I went on to the police academy and now I’m part of Chicago’s finest... Went from one gang to another.

Oh yeah. Mom is still alive and kicking. We don’t talk much though. I send her a check every now and then though and I’m sure she wisely invests it on Wild Turkey and Camels. Roger is still my friend to this day and I still see some of the other guys around the neighborhood.