Had a conversation about pit bull dogs, this past weekend, and it caused me to look back to 2016 for this Mine Creek Revelation:
HE CAME WITH US when we first moved to Nashville in the summer of 1950. He was an adult mixed mixed mixed breed dog that had belonged to my Uncle Jack who was shipping out with the Navy. The dog was named Bivens, for the Texarkana area community where he was born.
We — my brothers and I — couldn’t say Bivens. We called him Bibby. Classic mutt — small, short legs and black.
At the time, our large back yard at College Street was fenced. Bibby lived in the back yard and that is where me and my brothers learned our first lesson about dogs — watch where you step, especially if you’re barefoot.
The gate at the side of the house had a large decorative loop at the top. Bibby — being a superb athlete and smart, was pretty quick to learn that with a running start he could leap through that loop. After that he was free to roam the neighborhood. In fact, there are probably still some dogs in the old neighborhood that carry Bibby’s genes.
I do not remember what happened to Bibby. His disappearance may have had something to do with us uprooting to California for a year while my father was doing Marine Corps Reserve duty during the Korean War.
When we returned to Nashville I was a third-grader, and our dog was Dusty, a collie that had extrasensory perception. In the summer when he shed his winter coat, great gobs of hair swung heavily from his undercarriage. I swear, every time we tried to sneak up on him to give him a summertime buzz cut, he knew it. He had a way to get under the house, and he’d stay there until we forgot about the haircut.
I saw an article about the domestication of dogs which was thought to have happened about 16,000 years ago somewhere near China. All dog species are thought to have descended from the gray wolf. Great pony-sized mastiffs, teacup tiny little yap dogs and even Bibby and Dusty — all from the gray wolf.
The way scientists have been able to tell dog bones from wolf bones in the floor of ancient caves is that one animal is still clutching a caveman’s leather pennyloafer in its jaws (For our new readers coming over from the ‘News,’ that last sentence was what we call humor.)
There is no animal on earth that loves and serves man as much as the dog.
After Bibby and Dusty there was a procession at our house of dogs of all breeds, sizes and levels of intelligence.
I guess our favorite of all time was Smokey, a male German shepherd, who was Swampy’s constant companion. Smokey roamed the three blocks between our house and the ‘News’ office freely, and that led to his death. He was poisoned by a woman who hated dogs and kids. We didn’t have a veterinarian in town in those days, and Swampy had to rush him to Hope. He died on the way.
…… We do love our dogs, don’t we?
5 6 5 5 6 5 6 5 5 6
IF IT’S WAR. Will we go to war against Canada? President Trump is talking like there will be war. His newest best friends are the North Korean Dear Leader Dictator, and Vladimir B. Putin, former KGB strongman who is president for life in Roosia.
President Trump wants the Conference of Bigtime Free World Economic Nations to let Russia back into their hallowed circle. Russia had been kicked out because it invaded the Ukraine. Of course, that was Obama’s fault.
Anyway, it doesn’t matter if we lose our friends in Europe and in Canada, President Trump is making new friends for us right and left and right.
What I would like to know is what President Trump is hiding? I’m thinking what he’s hiding is a copy of former President Obama’s Kenyan birth certificate.
One thing I want to know about the US-Canada war is about our draft dodgers from the Vietnam War. Will they flee back to the United States? If they claim they don’t need a passport to get across because they are already U.S. citizens, does Immigration put them under arrest for ignoring their draft calls?
5 6 5 5 6 5 6 5 5 6
STILL MISSING. In the Mother’s Day Night Tornado of 2015 the high winds really messed up my place. There were a couple of things that were/are more mysterious than most.
I had been hoarding a 39-inch x 39-inch wooden pallet for an artistic project. It was heavy and more than one old man could handle by himself. But the tornado didn’t have any problem. The pallet just disappeared. It has not been seen or heard of since that night. If you stumble across it, I no longer want it back.
Attached to the side of my house is a thingy called a Vermont Weather Stick. it is a wooden thingy all in one piece. The base is about the size of a dollar bill folded in half, and a limb from the original tree pokes out about 18 inches. Here’s the thing: The limb (stick) bends upward when weather is going to be fair and dry, and it bends downward when the tv weatherman says it’s going to be rainy.
I said that the flat part of the Vermont Weather Stick was attached tight and flat to the side of the house. And, after the Mother’s Day Night Tornado of 2015 there was a glob of pine needles that under extreme air pressure managed to get stuffed between the house and the flat part of the Vermont Weather Stick. How did that happen?
5 6 5 5 6 5 6 5 5 6
SHE SAID: “I want to state upfront, unequivocally and without doubt: I do not believe that any racial, ethnic or gender group has an advantage in sound judging. I do believe that every person has an equal opportunity to be a good and wise judge, regardless of their background or life experiences.” Sonia Sotomayor, U.S. Supreme Court Justice
5 6 5 5 6 5 6 5 5 6
SWEET DREAMS, Baby
