My Memories Sustain Me

A few more memories of my own and I will stop boring those who come after me…  They probably feel I am trying to force my memories down their throats and would prefer their own.  In any event, this will be the last.

My wife and I lived about a quarter mile down the road from my parents.  One Easter I had given my wife a rabbit – bad choice.  He ate part of our curtains and the wallpaper, also half of a caricature painting an artist in spain had done of me.  He also ate half my wallet.  He was trained in one day.  We had a little dog named Honey, and the rabbit bullied him around.  At that time, I slept on my back.  I would wake up in the morning, and he’d be sitting on my chest looking me in the eye with his red eyes in an in your face manner, and my undershirt would be stained with his urine.  My wife thought it was funny.  He was a real character and gave us lots of laughs.

The next Easter I gave my wife two baby ducks.  She named them Wobble and Gobble.  We had a pond about 100 yards below our house.  We took them down there and put them in the water.  They beat us back to the house and never went near the water again.  One of the funniest sites I ever saw was my wife and I walking up to my parents house.  She had the rabbit on a leash, the two dogs were walking with us (Honey and Honey’s mother), and Wobble and Gobble would be walking behind, constantly quacking as if to say “Slow down!  What’s your hurry?”  If we stayed too long, they would go home on their own and complain on the way.

I had a sow who had a litter, and we were only able to save one small pig.  We brought it in the house and cared for it.  It got to where if you opened the refrigerator door, it would come running.  After we allowed it out, it thought the tractor was its mother and followed it around.  My wife and I, being young and recently married, were like all young couples – fighting a lot and then making up.  One time she left me.  There was a bus to Louisville that left in the a.m. and returned in the evening.  I knew she would be back that evening, so I was driving to town to pick her up, but I had a flat on the way, and while I was fixing it, she passed in a cab.  I tried to wave it down, but she just waved as they passed.

At one time, my family was having a get-together and everyone was sitting around in the living room.  My wife and I had had a fight that a.m.  Everyone knew we fought a lot.  A distant cousin asked my wife how she and I were getting along.  She said very, very vehemently “Like a cat and a dog!”  My mother was about to crack up with laughter and had to leave the room.  When we left, I gave my brother the pig, and it followed him and the tractor around.  One day the tractor turned one way and the pig turned another and was killed by what it thought was its mother.  One of the ducks had died when the second baby was born, and the other duck died when the last baby was born.

We also had five cows and gave them to my parents when we left, and they became a rather large herd.  We gave the rabbit to someone who allowed it to escape.  I imagine it tried to bully a dog as it had with Honey, and the dog fought back.  We gave Honey away to someone who doted on him, and he lived to 17 years.  Cutie, his mother, didn’t fare so well.

Before we left and gave our animals away. we lived in a house with a tin roof, and one Sunday afternoon I went to play ball.  My wife had become bored with the games and stayed home on this day.  We had just started to play, when we had a hail storm.  We all went home and on arrival I found my wife with Honey in her arms, and they both were crying, and the hail was making a terrific on the roof.  I think this was one of her happiest times to see me.

I realize these are my memories and mine alone, and I will not bore you with any more, but my memories sustain me and help me to face life as it continues.  Never let go of your memories.