The Story
Today I am going to tell you about a man, a Beanman to be precise, get comfortable and gather round children so we can begin our tale...
On the outskirts of London lies a lake, a huge lake, so large that the other side can only be seen on a clear day from the top of a ladder. By this lake is a forest. In 1988, a Beanman emerged slowly but surely from the shady undergrowth. At that very moment the Beanman had on his person 2 chalk pens, screwed up paper, his granddad's pocketwatch and some owl seeds. Within 5 minutes of leaving he had found a few valuables such as an old energy drink can from the seventies and a new friend...
This was a dribbling, slurry, but very friendly man from the inner city. His mouth was very wide and he could never close it, hence the dribbling; but this caused no problem for our hero the Beanman. He had only ever experienced the dull, repetitive life of the forest and this new companion so the two immediately became firm friends.
An interest that the two shared, apart from changing voices whilst placing objects on top of cranes and licking dry warm lamp-posts (as opposed to the more popular frozen, cold lamp-posts), was an addiction to doodling. The two drew wherever they went, on cardboard, concrete, banana skins and inside bins; in other words, the city was their canvas. The two used their addiction to feed and form their misshapen group: SUFFOCA.
Suffoca built up a group of followers who wanted a sip of something different, something that wasn’t flooding London; a different taste and further. Some said it tasted like golden syrup on a chunk of cloud and smelt like a toffee factory upside down in candy floss. Sweet for sure, but with your own bite size piece, it would make you crave a cup of tea:
“When making a cup of tea be sure to leave in the tea bag for some time, add water and stir in your sugar ..wait.. then add your milk. You can’t rush the process or you’ll lose out on taste” - Beanman
Beanman’s Tea and sugar were his pens, he doodled away and slowly but surely a limited stock of apparel grew, under the banner of 'Suffoca'.
Although Beanman’s head is filled with an ever turning cog of marshmallow men and wonderlands, deep inside works a sugar cube brain with all the interesting happenings from his past. Beanman takes influence primarily from early Disney movies, Alice in Wonderland and the Sloth from the Goonies (who was also Beanman's second cousin, twice removed on his mother's side).
No one knows too much of Beanman’s whereabouts but some say he is in a small roofed hut north of London from where he keeps Suffoca going strong through it's ever growing website (www.suffoca.com), we'll never know....
So children here is your task, if anyone asks you of Beanman, pass this story on, spread the word at school, at home, on the streets, whenever, wherever and however you want.
