Huey, Dewey, and Louie

[Per Starback]

David, thanks to your clarifications on the colouring of the boys.  I
will edit my article on HD&L a bit and then put it in the "characters"
directory at the archive, hoping that the rest of you will follow suit
and tackle other FAQs.

Don:
> I hate to see him [me, that is] refer to my upcoming Family Tree as
> a "revision"! I tried VERY hard not to do any recreating of past Barks
> facts... but sometimes we had to examine the various past versions and
> choose the most reasonable or appropriate combination of them.

What's wrong about it being a revision?  I haven't seen it of course,
but what I've understood from what you've written about it it's a
revision of Barks's old tree, and I don't see anything derogatory
about that.  It needed to be revised.

Wilmer:
> Are "Huey, Dewey, and Louie Duck" the real names of Donald's nephews?

The surname: Yes, I'm sure the nephews surname really has appeared as
Duck several times, even though I can't think of any now.  I don't
think they changed their last name when adopted, but how would I know?
Their mother is only listed with the surname Duck in the family trees
though.

First names:
> "Huey" is a perfectly O.K. name in English,

So it's not a strangely spelt nickname for Hugh?  I think I've seen
Huey's name spelt "Hughy" or something like that in some cartoons.

> (...) but "Dewey" is usually a familiar form of "Duane",

So that's what it is!  I've only seen Dewey used as a last name except
for Dewey Duck, so I've wondered about it.

I've never seen their "official" names being Duane or Louis or
anything like that.

> Also, how old do you think they are in the stories?

Well, in WDC 42 (March 1944) they are planning on entering kite-flying
contest to which only kids under six are eligible.  I guess they got a
little older later on, but not much.

> What grade are they in at school?

In WDC 99 (December 1948) one of the nephews refers to having had to
stay in after kindergarten because he didn't know how many inches in a
foot.  (Well, that doesn't *have* to have been just the other day,
even if that's the impression you get.)

The next month, WDC 100, we see their school, and Donald leads them to
a door beside a sign "CLASSROOMS GRADES 2-A, 2-B".

What other data points are there?

> And what are their exact ranks in the Junior Woodchucks?

In WDC 125 they have to pass O.R.St.B. to become Brigadier Generals,
and this is said to be the only way to become such.  They did more
than they had to though, and got promoted to *five star* generals.
"Also you get *merit badges*!"  Then in WDC 132 they got promoted "way
up in rank" to ten star generals.  The next step is in WDC 150: "if we
can pass the drowning test, we become *exalted hightails*, which is
the next rank above ten-star generals!"  "When we become exalted
hightails we can wear the tails of our caps on *top*, instead of
hanging down the back!"

Of course they become exalted hightails, and this is still their rank.
They also became "chevaliers of the honor guard", "rear adminrals of
the arctic snows", and "commandants of the hightails' hall of heroes"
by the way.

> Important questions, all!

Certainly!
--       "
Per Starback, Uppsala, Sweden.  email: starback at student.docs.uu.se
 "I was wondering when those confounded Junior Woodchucks
  are going to run out of *titles*!"