The History Of Ludwig II As Related To Ludwick III by Ludwick II (REVISION ESSAY)

Growing up as a child, I didn't know my father very well at all. I was born in Nebraska, Licoln, specifically, and apparently we lived next to a jail. My father vanished for a year, and my mother who was from around here originally, had no idea what to do. My father was a truck driver and had been known for disappearing for months on end, but this time my mother had had enough and moved us back to this area in upstate NY to live with my grandparents.

My dad had been an airborne ranger in Vietnam. He had recieved two purple hearts, as well as various other medals. Getting shot is a family tradition on my dads side, as his father ALSO had two purple hearts, except he was a marine, Hooo Aaah. My dad had been shot twice and hit with grenade shrapnel, but one of the bullets had hit him right in the jaw. He had told me that that particular bullet had passed through the stock (wooden butt of a rifle) before it slammed into his jaw. He would relate to me that f it hadn't hit that wood first, it would have cut his head clean off and I would never have been born.

After we moved back to NY my father showed up after awhile in his rig claiming he had been in jail for beating up some guy, or something. Some bullshit. From this point on I saw him once a year or so, but I didn't like him all that much for reasons a child doesn't understand until they are older. Then, on some summer breaks from school, he would insist I ride with him in his truck for my summer vacation. I HATED it. Months trapped in a rig with my father driving coast to coast. Whats funny is, he had a bed in his rig that I slept in day and night but the man NEVER slept. EVER. Even as a kid I thought it was weird.

He would, however, disappear at almost every truck stop we stayed at. Sometimes for days on end. These truck stops are HUGE with arcades and little movie theatres and all types of entertainments for weary truckers. I would watch other people play the arcade games and meet other kids sometimes, then sleep at night in his truck. No matter how hard I looked for him I could never find him until he would just appear one day and say it was time to hit the road. I wasn't aware of the dangers present then, but as I got older I obviously resented him for it.

So, on one of the lengthly hauls that the old man and I were on he divulged our family history as it was related down to him from his father, and so forth. We "Ludwicks" were actually descended from the old King of Bavaria, Ludwig II. As my dad related the tale to me, he informed me that we were actually descended from his sister, because Ludwig II, also known as the "Mad Baron" and "Fairly Tale Prince," was also what my dad referred to as "fey," with a limp-wristed hand wave.

Now might be a good time to point out that besides being twice my size and tougher than a coffin nail, my father looks exactly like me. So do his brothers, his father, etc. We Ludwick males carry strong genes for a big nose, imposing eyebrows and small chins. It appears that it has perhaps always been this way, as the picture above is Ludwig II pasted over the most famous castle he ever commissioned (and inspiration for Walt Disney's Cinderella's Castle) called "Neuschwanstein Castle." You may or may not agree that the picture resembles me, but if you ever saw a pic of my father as a young man (something I cannot provide or I would), you would be taken aback, surely.

Anyway, there is a lot of stigma surrounding this man; to this day there are plays about him in Germany and around Europe he is subject of many legends. My father told me: Ludwig II was terrified that his sister's sons were after his throne, being that he had no heir, and had attempted to kill them. They both fled to America where one son changed his name to Ludwick, donning the "CK" at the end instead of "G," which was a pretty common name. Ludwick, however, is an extremely rare name that won't appear in any of those "coat of arms" books, or whatever that have EVERY freakin' name and where it derives from. Ludwick is curiously missing from any such documentation. In fact, my father told me(and this could DEFINITELY be bullshit) , that there is only ONE strain of the name, and it comes directly from the nephew of Ludwig II who changed it.

Again, this is a story related to me by my father who is, among other things (including John Ludwick II), something of a fucking liar.