It came to Barney Wilkers that taking in his brother Sal was the right thing to do; after all they had no other relatives to speak of. At least none that counted when the chips were down. And for Sal, the chips were indeed down, enough to sweep up in a dustpan, several times over. Not that Barney was big on housekeeping!

Truth be told he lived in a ramshackle old house that had certainly seen better days. It could have been fixed up and maintained quite nicely if he had taken a notion to do so. He wasn't much of a handyman when it came to fixing things, not that he thought it worthwhile to spend his time making repairs. As long as the buckets held water when the roof leaked, the place was his cup of tea. He didn't want to draw attention to himself in any way because he conducted a rather sleazy business of selling catnip and hard cider. Not that such sales were forbidden by law, but he undercut all the other sellers by a substantial amount. Many suspected that he was growing the catnip in his basement, rather than growing it in a garden like normal folks or gathering it in the woods and brewing the cider in his bathtub. No one ever really suspected him of using the tub to take a bath!

Sal Wilkers had been in a correctional school for young men who had gone astray. He had pilfered eggs from a henhouse and other such mischief. Now that he was remanded into Barney's care, he was supposed to be reformed enough to return to society becoming a responsible citizen. Instead, he was a courier for his older brother, hauling cider in and around Elmsford. Sal drove his brother's old Mercury coupe with the windows rolled down, blaring music as loud as he could; not the wisest thing to do as he had no driver's license and it would only be a matter of time for Big Lil, the local peace officer to catch him. He made most of his hauls at night when he assumed things would be safe. The fortunate thing was that the old radio didn't have much of a speaker and could only pull in one station that played classical music! If anything, it would lull folks to sleep! Thus it was that he had so far remained unhampered by the likes of the local law enforcement.

Barney chose to focus his attention on entertaining some like-minded folks who hung out at his place on a more or less regular basis.

 They were lured by the bohemian atmosphere of his digs. Most were apt to catnap on old mattresses on the floor, covered with colorful cotton patterned spreads in vivid colors. Beaded curtains were suspended in doorways; bottles of hard cider stood waiting for a swig to be had at will. And that was quite often. Even on a rainy night Barney's was considered the "in" place to be if one was part of that crowd. Patchouli incense fanned thru the rooms making the place seem far more exotic than it was. Barney, true to his hosting skills, visited among the party folk, whiling away the hours oblivious to most everything else.

 Barney is made from vintage cotton and is 9 1/2" tall.