Once Upon a Time,. Part 2
And in an email from another cousin:
When I was young, I am 53 by the way, I remember going to your Grandparent's house, I was really scared of your Grandfather's dogs. My dad and Uncle George (I know some of my cousins called him Uncle "G" but he was always Uncle George to us) would go in the yard so he could show my dad the latest thing he was tinkering on. My mom, my sisters and I would sit and listen to your Grandma tell stories about her everyday life. She was so funny she made us all laugh so much....
When my cousin emailed me this I beamed because, sweet friends, I too love to tell stories about my everyday life. Generally I find my stories mundane and hope there might be some trinkets of humor interwoven here and there, but to know that my grandmother and I share in that is lovely.
And I, like my dad and like his father before him, also love dogs. I don't ever remember not having a dog growing up. They were always huge and ominous looking dogs who were total lovers on the inside. I remember the postman would leave notes saying he was afraid to deliver mail to our house because of our dogs. This was funny, of course, because ALL of our pets were homeless strays who were as afraid of the dark as I was as a kid.
My dad, aka "The Dog Whisperer", had a way of attracting abused animals. They would shy away from the world and yet somehow end up on our doorstep- many of them with chains and knotted ropes around their necks that they had broken free from. We kept them and loved them and they sat guard outside our house for the decades my parents lived in their home. We never had an incident with our dogs biting people.
Since my dad has passed the dogs don't come anymore.
Well, that's a half lie. My mom finds occasional dog poo in her yard from time to time and even found a dead rooster in our garage one afternoon (it was our neighbor's- it came to die at our house- don't ask my mom about it).
Of course now I have a dog and I love all things covered in fur (except people, of course).
When I was young, I am 53 by the way, I remember going to your Grandparent's house, I was really scared of your Grandfather's dogs. My dad and Uncle George (I know some of my cousins called him Uncle "G" but he was always Uncle George to us) would go in the yard so he could show my dad the latest thing he was tinkering on. My mom, my sisters and I would sit and listen to your Grandma tell stories about her everyday life. She was so funny she made us all laugh so much....
When my cousin emailed me this I beamed because, sweet friends, I too love to tell stories about my everyday life. Generally I find my stories mundane and hope there might be some trinkets of humor interwoven here and there, but to know that my grandmother and I share in that is lovely.
And I, like my dad and like his father before him, also love dogs. I don't ever remember not having a dog growing up. They were always huge and ominous looking dogs who were total lovers on the inside. I remember the postman would leave notes saying he was afraid to deliver mail to our house because of our dogs. This was funny, of course, because ALL of our pets were homeless strays who were as afraid of the dark as I was as a kid.
My dad, aka "The Dog Whisperer", had a way of attracting abused animals. They would shy away from the world and yet somehow end up on our doorstep- many of them with chains and knotted ropes around their necks that they had broken free from. We kept them and loved them and they sat guard outside our house for the decades my parents lived in their home. We never had an incident with our dogs biting people.
Since my dad has passed the dogs don't come anymore.
Well, that's a half lie. My mom finds occasional dog poo in her yard from time to time and even found a dead rooster in our garage one afternoon (it was our neighbor's- it came to die at our house- don't ask my mom about it).
Of course now I have a dog and I love all things covered in fur (except people, of course).I would love to say I have passed down the generational habit of parenting only large and scary-as-Hell looking dogs, but I was sent Penny instead.
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