The Origin of Dave Riggler (the name, at least…)

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Every once in a while, someone’ll ask me where the name Dave Riggler came from.  It’s not a complicated story, so I figured I’d let you in on it here.

For some odd reason, people have always said I “look like a Dave”.  Okay, I’m not exactly sure what a “Dave” looks like, but fair enough, I guess.  So “Dave” it is…

“Riggler” is a little bit more complicated, but not by much.  I used to go to summer camp when I was a kid.  One year, there was this guy with the last name Riggler.  At the time, he walked on crutches (the wooden kind that you put under your armpits, not the kind with the cuffs that go around your forearms), but he wanted to get better at using his wheelchair.  (It was a long time ago, so I don’t really remember why he had both, but he did.)  Anyway, I spent a few days out of the two weeks I was at camp going around with him, up and down hills, through various terrain, etc., showing him how to maneuver and getting him used to the chair.  That’s my memory of it, anyway.

His last name was Riggler, so when I was writing “First Steps”, a story (which was a play, at the time) about a kid who didn’t want to walk, but wanted to use a wheelchair, “Riggler” was a natural name.

And thus, Dave Riggler was born.

See?  Like I said, not complicated.