An answer in part, I believe I saw either 5 or 6 candles on Sally's frozen Sara Lee (donated by Helen Bishop!) birthday cake last season, but don't recall which. She looks about 7 this year so I guess it maybe was 5 candles. (?) I think you're about right on his discharge date from the army. Not sure, though since they've never said definitely that I remember anyway.

He mentioned in "The Wheel", that he had worked with an old Greek copywriter named Teddy. This may have been when he wrote copy for the furrier. Let's say Sally's 5, which puts her date of birth no later than late summer 1955 (since Don is building the playhouse wearing a t-shirt on her birthday). Which means that Betty was pregnant by late fall 1954. So if Don got his discharge in 1953, he sure didn't waste any time in finding his way to New York, getting a job, and courting Betty. My guess is that he was discharged sometime between late 1950 and early 1952, giving him a little bit more time to learn the ad business before starting a family.

Betty, on the other hand, would have had only a brief fling in New York. After all, she mentions in season 1 that she is 28 in 1960, which means she was pregnant by the time she was 23. She presumably would have graduated from Bryn Mawr, if she did indeed graduate, when she was about 22, although people did skip grades back then. So she may have been single in New York for all of a year before she met Don.

I still say Don (Dick Whitman) spent some time behind bars. He might have murdered someone in self defense. Let's say he did not go to college, what was he doing from the age of 17 or 18 till the time he served in Korea? There's a huge gap in there.

I've long thought that the most immoral aspect of what he did with the real Draper was just capitalizing on the confusion to greatly shorten the length of time he spent in the army. Just going by a different name and cutting oneself off from ones terrible family isn't so bad. Not letting the real Draper's family know was pretty bad, of course, but he wasn't going to come back to life, and some things have to fall by the wayside when there's an opportunity.

Along the same lines as exiting the army early, my guess is that Whitman was able to use Draper's past experience to catapult his career, through references, etc. Draper was older. I'm not sure what experience he had, whether he'd been to college, etc. He was an engineer, and there's a bit in one of the episodes about how the army was his ticket to college, I think. But I didn't quite catch that, and you'll have to forgive my ignorance of american history, army protocol, and the G. I. bill and such. Engineering doesn't seem like an "in" for advertising per se, but I think Draper's experience may have helped him.

Again, maybe this was covered after episode 14, but it occurred to me that maybe one reason Whitman hadn't been to the doctor for so long was that the paper work was a problem for him. I don't know of any other good reason he would have avoided the doctor. In any event, his decision to be honest there about his age and also about when his parents died, really grabbed me.

Near the end of “Three Sundays,” Don tells Betty that his father beat the hell out of him when he was a child and that the only comfort he got was fantasizing about murdering him!

From the bits and pieces we have gathered from flashbacks, rare comments from Don, and his awkward meetings with Adam (his half brother), we know that Don was born when his mother was “about 22,” that she was a prostitute, and that she died in childbirth. Don was taken to live with his natural father and his wife. When Don was ten, his father (about 42) was kicked in the head by a horse and died (hmm). His father’s wife was pregnant at the time of his death, and shortly thereafter she married “Uncle Mack.” When Don’s half brother Adam was born, Uncle Mack invited him to come upstairs and meet his brother. Sulky young Don said that Adam wasn’t his brother. Uncle Mack said “You have the same father.” At this point Don was known as Dick Whitman.

Sometime in the early 1950’s, Dick Whitman joined the army, went to Korea, and switched dog tags with the dead Don Draper. By 1960 he had become a successful advertising executive and lived in Ossining, New York with a beautiful wife and two young children. He had become the man we know---handsome, mysterious, talented, and unfaithful. When his half brother Adam, now grown up, reappeared in his life, Don paid him off to get lost forever. Adam, heartbroken, hung himself.

Don had the smarts and confidence to steal a dead soldier’s dog tags and assume his identity. He was cold-hearted and cruel in the rejection of his brother Adam. In view of what he has just told Betty about fantasizing and murder, I would like to know more about the “accident” that caused the death of his father! And we need to know more about the “missing years” in order to understand the haunted man Don has become in 1962.

I don't remember the scene with the real Don Draper very well. I'd like to see it again and take notes. I thought Sally older than 6 or 7, but had forgotten the birthday party. These might be approximate ages, if counting from 1961. The writers have been good about guiding us to assume things about a character when we don't have facts on it. An example is that it is very easy to assume Dick became Don because he didin't want to go back to his childhood home. But, as was pointed out here, he was an adult, and the father had been dead for years. I agree there has to be another reason for his taking a new identity. I also didn't realize he gave his real age to the doctor instead of Don Draper's age. Where was Dick Coleman in the 1940s?

1924 approx birth year of Don Draper/Dick Coleman
??? birth year of real Don Draper
1933 approx birth year of Betty Draper
1942 WWII and D Coleman is 18 years old
1950-53 Korean War
1951
1951/2 Betty might be 18 and enter college
1954 perhaps year of Betty and Don marriage
1955 approx year Sally born

I remember the conversation where Pete Campbell told him that the "real" Don Draper died in Korea in 1950, which means Don ( aka Dick Whitman ) "looked remarkable for a man of 42."

If Don is 36 years old in 1962, it means he was born in 1926. This would make him 24 years old in 1950, when he assumed his new identity shortly before being discharged from the army.

Betty was 28 in 1960, which puts her birth date at 1932. I thought Sally looked older than five years old at her party. Closer to 7 or 8. However, I think she is suppost to be 7 or 8 now ( 1962. ) This would put her birthdate at 1954-55.

Another "age clue", in the box of photos Adam left behind, was a picture of Don and Adam together. The date on the back of the picture was 1944. Don was clearly a teenager ( and much older than Adam ) in the photo. The timeline would make him 18 years old in 1944, which would be about right.

I don't think we need to avail ourselves of additional explanations or missing information to explain why Whitman became Draper. Again, remember that he got discharged from the army years early because it was assumed he'd been in it for 3 1/2 years. He was a volunteer, so he wasn't going to get to return to cilian life at the end of Korea.

If wanting to leave his family wasn't a huge motivation, then why does he look in at them through the train window and say, "I can't"? The film makers are giving us a big message there.

Sure, Draper's father had been dead for years in 1950, but it's not clear to me that Uncle Mack was any easier, or indeed that Draper means just his biological father when he says he was beaten by his father. Remember in the hotel with Adam, how Adam says, "Uncle Mack thought you were too soft. But you're not, are you?" (Draper responds, "No, I'm not.")

I've got to give you guys a thank you. One of my blind spots was that I missed that this season was taking place in 1962. I had thought it was 1961, but I see now through google search that you are right. 1962 explains why Peggy's kid is walking, how Joan developed this serious relationship, how Roger seems somewhat o.k. physically, how Roger's daughter has suddenly come around to marriage, etc.

I have to say that I am disappointed in Draper still living with stupid Betty a good year after his epiphanies with Rachel....We do wonder what caused him such stress in the past year to cause his blood pressure to increase, though. I think the doctor asked him about whether his personal circumstances had changed at all in 1961, and I still don't really know. With the Campbell/blackmail attempt, with his brother's suicide, with Betty coming to terms with his infidelity, with meeting Rachel, he sure had plenty of reason to have high blood pressure in 1960. Hard for me to believe 1961 was any tougher. Maybe the next episode will shed light, as apparently he's going to reveal something to Betty that he's tellingher for the first time.

an interesting theory that penultimate has about Don spending some time in the clink.

didn't think of that before.