Belgian Dude

The other day I was watching one of my favorite movies, The Big Lebowski, a Coen brothers classic, and it brought back a classic memory of JW from Belgium.  Jeff Bridges plays a character who regards himself as follows: "Look, let me explain something to you. I'm not Mr. Lebowski. You're Mr. Lebowski. I'm the Dude. So that's what you call me. That, or His Dudeness … Duder … or El Duderino, if, you know, you're not into the whole brevity thing."

Although this movie dates back to 1998, 6 years after we left Belgium, its use of the "Dude" moniker in the film is intentionally anachronistic to capture the essence of a grown man who has yet to grow up.  The use of the term "Dude" was especially pronounced in the 1980's due, among other things, to the popularity of the 1989 movie "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure", and thus was embedded in the vernacular of JW and his friends.

Thus, JW always got a kick out of passing a restaurant on the road between where I worked and where we lived, the D'oude Pastorie in Kraainem, Belgium.  In Flemish, it translates to "Old Rectory" but for JW it was always "party on Dude!"  Click on the picture below to zoom in on the view we passed almost daily.

Click on the "YouTube" link below to see the essence of "the Dude" explained.