Present
THE MISADVENTURES OF
WILLIE "MOPBUCKET" DICKENS
The destiny of Willie "Mopbucket" Dickens was surely predetermined by his humble and bungled beginnings.
His creator was an Italian fellow by the name of Conrado Hartziono (which may explain Willie's rather large nose), and whose renown for puppet and ventriloquial figure making was well known.
Conrado was able to recover enough of the water-logged basswood from the ship to create one more figure - yes, that's right - Willie "Mopbucket" Dickens. Willie's water-logged beginnings left no doubt that the sea would be calling his name.
On record, Willie's career at sea is undistinguished, in fact, it is very near non-existent.
Willie's first notable position (although not noted on any official records), was aboard the Titanic.
Some time after, Willie decided to join the Navy.
Willie likes to talk about his times aboard ship, (limited though they were).
Despite his many "goofs", Willie is an optimistic soul that looks at the world through rose-colored blinders.
I couldn't have said it better myself Willie.
One day, Conrado decided to try his hand at ship building. He had plenty of basswood on hand and he used all that he had in his shop to build the ship. No one knows if the basswood would have been good for ship building, but it certainly, was not a good idea, to have a slot jaw in the bow of the ship.
Needless to say, the ship didn't stay afloat long.
Among seafarers however, Willie is quite well known.
The Captain instructed Willie to check the ice - so he did. Willie headed straight for the galley (kitchen for you landlubbers), saw the ice trays were full and reported back to the Captain that all was well.....
........and well.....you know the rest of the story.....
It is well known, (although, again, left off all official records), that Willie was at Pearl Harbor on that fateful day in 1941. Unofficial accounts have it that Willie was on watch, the last thing he was heard to say was,
"look at the pretty birds", just before you-know-what hit the fan.....
......and of course the rest is history.
It was there that Willie got his nickname "Mopbucket".
It seems that the next day, he was found floating in the sea sitting in a mop bucket,
(actually his...ummmm....posterior was stuck in the bucket).
Like the time he served as the ship's cook, (which ended when he used epsom salts instead of regular salt.....),
or when he served briefly on a submarine, (being transferred after he tried to "go out for a breath of air"......
.......while the sub was still submerged........),
or even the time he was assigned to janitorial duty on an aircraft carrier,
(until he decided to wax the flight deck.......).
Most folks consider him to be a simple sort of fellow,
but Willie says with a big smile, "the simple things in life are the best!"
Willie's favorite websites;
Willie has one deep, dark secret, but he won't let me tell, so I'll use signal flags.
(Willie doesn't know what they mean, so it's safe.)
Write Willie;
Willie "Mopbucket" Dickens is a fine basswood carved figure by Conrad Hartz.
