Dootze

So, the question I was asked repeatedly was how did Don get the nickname Dootze? I will need confirmation from Randy and Paul but I think it was Randy who came up with "Dootzie Francais" from French class back when they were taunting each other in grammar school. The name stuck and got shortened to just Dootz.

After many years I asked him how to spell it and he said, "Just the way it sounds." I replied, "Oookaay, and that would be?"
"D-O-O-T-Z-E."

And all these years I'd been spelling it Doots, rhymes with "boots." So we have all these different spellings of Dootz, Dootze, Doots, Deutz...but the man spelled it Dootze.

Somebody else will have to fill in on the "George" years as I was away at college and then in CA during that time. Doug and Jane must have been dumbfounded to learn their dear Donald had now become this guy named George.

I do know that he dropped the George in the early 80s because it was causing him some problems. He told me he was down in Key West and met a girl at that spot where you watch the sunset. He introduced himself as Don. Then when they were walking back to the Happy Hour bar some guy drove by and shouted out, "Hey, George!" His new friend looked at him with suspicion and said, "You told me your name was Don!"

He probably got that "Who me?" innocent look on his face and said, "George? What George?"