Brad Hamilton

Brad Hamilton

purveyor of fine instruction

© 2023

1twentyeight

The Story of Bako

Every family has their funny stories…the kinds of stories that make each family unique. Most of time however, these funny stories are only funny to the members of the family. And so it is with my family and the story of “Bako, Bako, Bako!””.

As a child, my wife Julie, would participate in church Christmas programs. These simply consisted of children memorizing lines, and at the appropriate time, walking up to the mic and saying what they had memorized. Most of the time these kinds of things work out just fine, except for the occasional mis-step, which is usually repaired by the nice grey haired women helping out.

Julie went to church with a friend named John Britain Churchill. John was a year older than Julie. John and Julie had their lines memorized, along with all the other children, and when it became John’s turn he walked to the mic and instead of saying something to the effect of “Jesus was born in a manger and came to save the world” boldly stated “Bako, Bako, Bako!” Of course, this was not the line John was to quote. In fact, to this day no one even knows what it means. But we’ve adopted the line and have used it at will in our home. When one of our children asks a question we don’t know the answer to, or don’t want to answer, we simply respond “Bako, Bako, Bako”. When we’re asked what we’re doing for the day…Bako, Bako, Bako. When they want to know what’s for dinner…Bako, Bako, Bako. You get the idea.

When Julie and I planned a recent trip to Chicago I knew that I wanted to take advantage of getting a t-shirt made at the T-Shirt Deli. I also knew that I needed to work Bako, Bako, Bako into the design. And so, I give you the John Britain Churchill inspired “Bako, Bako, Bako” shirt.

In another post I’ll share with you the details of getting a shirt done at the T-Shirt Deli. Very cool place, very cool people, and a very cool process.