My Backyard

As best I can tell, there are no dog houses in the neighborhood. When I was growing up, everyone who had a dog had a dog house out in the backyard. Some dogs were chained to their dog houses and some big dogs used to drag their houses around. They had names like Zeus and Moose.

More over, most of the dogs ran free. That is because the kids, within limits, ran free. Dogs outside and kids outside was standard. When the kids were called in for supper or bedtime, the dog hung out at its house. After supper in the house, the kid or kids would bring table scraps out to the dog. The kids were also in charge of being certain the dog had water.

Our two oldest daughters grew up with dogs that ran free. Joey, the black lab, refused to come in the house except on the Fourth of July when he would run through our full screen slider door because he was afraid of fireworks. Joey and I spent much time hunting ducks on the river way back in the woods. He was fine with shot guns. Fireworks were not his game.

Our two youngest kids are essentially leash law children. Except in the fenced in back yard, I do not think they have ever seen their dog run free. In fact, they have never had outdoor cats. Somewhere along the way, the pets have moved indoors and share our daily lives. No table scraps for our pampered beasts.

As best I can tell there are no phone booths in the neighborhood or anywhere else, I guess. If there are public telephones, they do not have a bright future. Phone booths with their folding doors for privacy are gone but not forgotten. Please tell the children about the seats in the booths that allowed you to converse in privacy and some comfort. The stand alone outside phone booths I remember were glass and metal. They were well lit, offered shelter from the weather and had a phone book hanging from a chain.

My favorite indoor phone booths were elegant and were made of furniture quality wood. There may be a few of those phone booths in the lobbies of older first class urban hotels. Unless you were calling collect, you needed a pocket full of change. This would be particularly true if your boy friend or girl friend went to college other than where you chose to attend. As I remember, these long distance friendships rarely survived the first year of college. It is a tribute to the callowness of youth.

Those phone books, as I remember, were half local directory and half yellow pages. I pity the sales people trying to sell advertising in the yellow pages today. A similar dismal job prospect would be working for TV Guide.

As best I can tell, no one drinks tap water from a glass anymore. If George proclaims we are addicted to oil, than I proclaim we are addicted to bottled water. As a case in point, I brought two Poland Spring bottles of water to our son and told him one was filled with tap water and one was filled with Poland Spring water. Both had been refrigerated. He could not tell the difference, but decided he liked bottled water for the portability and convenience. I remember my parents bragging on how good Attleboro water was. I do not hear that anymore.

Until next time.