woooops! Donald's Childhood

[Olaf Solstrand]

Hehe... my last mail was supposed to be FIRST the part of Don Rosa's 
so-called arrogance, then something about Donald's childhood, and then 
something connected to Lo$. Unfortunately, I wrote it at school, and when 
the bell rang, I had to run to class. I wrote nothing about D's childhood or 
Lo$, but I still forgot to delete it from the Subject. Anyway, here it 
comes...

Do we know anything about Donald's childhood? I have tried to gather some 
loose treads... (but I'm totally ignoring "From duck to egg" by Marco Rota)

1. According to Don Rosa, Donald was born around 1920. Or was he? In Life of 
Scrooge part 12, HD&L asks Donald what this Uncle Scrooge is like. Donald 
answers that "I have only met him once, and then I was younger than you are 
know." Since the meeting Donald refers to is about 1930 (at least it is 
after the Wall Street Crack), he must back then have been younger than HD&L 
was in 1947. If Donald is born in 1920 and HD&L in 1940, that is not 
correct. Can Donald be born later - or the boys born later? I doubt it. 
Donald and Della was twins, and I can't imagine a Disney Duck having babies 
even YOUNGER than 20 years old... The most obvious solution here is that 
Donald remembered wrong, and that he IS born in 1920.

2. When Donald was a child in Duckburg, he must have lived somewhere with 
his parents. This could have been in a house in Duckburg, at Grandma Duck's 
farm or in the Money Bin (11th floor). I doubt it was the Money Bin, since 
Donald in Life of Scrooge don't believe that the building is full of cash, 
which he would know if he had lived there the 10 first years of his life. 
Kari Korhonen's stories about Donald's childhood shows him growing up on 
Grandma Duck's farm. Since both his parents were working all day in the 
Money Bin, that seems logical. That he either lived there, or she was his 
babysitter all day long. But he probably lived there. From Don Rosa's The 
Sign of the Triple (something) and lots of other stories we know that all 
family celebrations are hold on the farm. Therefor, let's suppose he lived 
there.

3. In modern Duckburg, we never see Hortense, Matilda, Della or Quackmore. 
Probably because they, in 1930, moved away - left Duckburg. At least that is 
my theory. We see them leaving the Money Bin - they probably left the city 
as well. Where should they have gone, you say? My theory is Scotland. As you 
know I haven't read "The Secret of the old castle", but I guess there's 
nothing that says that they couldn't have lived in Scotland for a while - on 
the castle or somewhere near it - and that Donald also was with'em.

4. We know a few things Donald has done in his youth. What appears in Barks 
stories are probably most bragging (like all his hunter stories), but I 
believe in the happenings of two cartoons - "The wise little hen" and "The 
three cabarellos". I haven't SEEN the three cabarellos, but especially since 
the figures is re-used by D.R. - and Carioca even has his own story - I 
guess they have met in their youth, probably somewhere in Latin America.

5. In "the wice little hen", we see that Donald once lived on a boat, and 
that he had a good friend in that pig I don't know the english name of. If 
this has happened, which I choose to believe since it was "Donald"'s first 
appearance, it must have been BEFORE he moved back to Duckburg.

6. Why did Donald move back to Duckburg? My theory; his grandfather, Grandpa 
Duck, died, and Donald came back to take part in his funeral (if that is the 
right word). He then helped Grandma on her farm for a while, until she got 
to hire someone to help her (Gus). At this time, Donald bought a house in 
Duckburg and moved in here.

All these are my personal theories. I want to hear what you know.

One day, I hope I get to write a story about Donald's childhood and youth!!!



By the way, remember that I told you 'bout the story I wrote? It's right now 
in the hands of BYRON ERICKSON, which is reading it and evaluating it. This 
is kinda big for me, since Byron Erickson in a long time has been a man 
mentioned by Don Rosa in appendixes etc., where I have started thinking of 
him as a very important person - maybe even a god. Call me crazy.

-olaf-
_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.