There’s something I can’t explain.
This is pretty rare for me. I’m good at research, in fact that may be the only thing I’m really good at. So, it’s a bit embarrassing but I figured I’d ask you all for help.
Here’s how this all started.
I was doing some clothes donation cleaning and came across an old favorite t-shirt of mine, something I picked up at a thrift store 10 or 15 years ago. It’s one of my favorites, even though I had no clue who or what The Fōfers were, or are.
The shirt no longer fits and I thought the cute Fōfer riding the bike would be something Little Bean would like. But hey, it’s a weird world so I decided to figure out who or what The Fōfers were first.
I’ve had no luck! There’s an obscure Wordpress website out there dating back to 2007-08 that talks about the island of Fōf where the Fōfers ride their bikes, but otherwise I can’t find any animated show, cartoon, book or anything to explain The Fofers. I spent a lot of time looking as well, more than should be normal.
I even ran the image on the shirt through Google Image Search and nothing. Nada. Zip! Even more perplexing is the accent above the o, so ō if pronounced like the o in home. So it’s pronounced foefers, not foofer.
What the heck are The Fōfers?!
There’s no tag on the t-shirt by the way and I bought it in NH.
Anybody?
So, here’s you’re assignment! Help me figure out what the heck The Fōfers are? Because it’s driving me insane! Ready? Go!
Ooo, I love a mystery! And I love anything that gives me an excuse to exercise my Google-fu! :)
First I looked at trying to determine if it was a foreign word. Tried Google Translate and several other translation pages that purport to be able to identify source language. One said Welsh, another said Danish, but when running the word through both a Welsh->English and a Danish->English translator, the word did not translate.
I Googled "fōfurs" and got nothing. I tried the singular "fōfer" and got one and only one hit: https://kidsmusicthatrocks.blogspot.com/2009/03/sh-berry.html It's a review of an album of kid's music that tells stories of the special secret island of fōf and the adventures of a curious fōfer named Otamo. "Like any normal kid, Otamo loves to talk about 'The Day I Learned to Ride My Bike.'" The musician is Shana Barry, and the album is A Pink Whale And A Very Tall Tree. Don't know if it's related to the shirt, but it sure does correlate nicely! Looks like Barry used to have a website at fofers.com, but the domain appears to have expired. Haven't been able to find any web presence later than about 2009, at least so far. She does not appear to be the same Shana Barry that works for Anheuser-Busch.
I showed my husband and here’s what he added:
Pretty sure the comments nailed it already. Best I can do is Shana Berry's Pink Whale and a Very Tall Tree, the expired domain fofers.com, the reference in Whale about learning to ride a bike, the resemblance of Berry's Fofers in pictures to the furry weird thing on a bike on Dan's shirt, and a quote in a Maine Women October 2010 magazine with an article about Sherry and the Fofers: "The Fofers love to ride bikes and climb trees and lots of other outdoor activities."