For a school assignment to create commercials, Daniel made a Sassy Fras mask (after his cat), and advertised “Sassy Fras Cereal,” performing in an imagined Sassy Fras voice. He practiced on Mabel before performing it at school and she was very impressed with his performance, talent, and charisma. Daniel’s teacher was too—so much so that she had him perform it for his principal. The principal was also impressed and had him perform it for the other 6th grade classes. 10 years later, when reading the letter in which this account appeared, Daniel remarked, “What gets me in these letters, when I was just so young, was just how nice my mother speaks of me. It’s amazing, Dave, it really is. Can you imagine how amazing it is for me, to have my mother saying these nice things about me, even though it was 10 years ago?”[1]
Indeed, Mabel’s estimation of her son had changed so dramatically in the intervening years, that no one that met him after high school could imagine that mother and son once got along at all.[2]
[1] 11:11, DT001_1 Letter from Mabel to Margy, April 1973, read aloud on tape letter to David Thornberry,
[2] Interviews with literally everybody that met Daniel after high school.