Post by thewisefarmer on Dec 5, 2017 19:08:19 GMT
PAPPY
I was six and it seemed like the holidays took forever to arrive. Cooking eggs for Easter took at least 300 hours to be ready and waiting for Christmas to come took a whole eternity. I believe a "Mother minute" which has absolutely no reality to real time either emerged out of holiday timing. A few days, a few minutes....they did not move by regular time when a sprig of holiday was added to the mix. So for an eternity that year, I awaited Christmas.
Growing up in the valley in California meant dreaming of Christmas, but it was not dreaming of a white one like ones we use to know. We only knew green dry ones. But taking a holiday trip to the "
" was almost as good.
This was the Christmas season that we took a trip to a friend's home in Grass Valley. There was real and the excitement of holidays soon be there. Upon entering the house, I no longer cared about Christmas for in this home lived a white poodle and her 2 puppies. These were a whoops litter. The black cocker from up the way had fathered the little mongrels. The little female already had a home, but the black male needed one. I have no memory of how it came to be that he came home with us, but he did.
The black pup had a white Santa beard and so he was named Pappy.
Soon the inevitable happened with my brother's allergies and the doctor told my mother that having the dog would kill my brother with his asthma. She told the doctor that it will kill my youngest if the dog leaves. So a compromise was arranged, the dog would stay on the main level of the house and not be upstairs where the kids slept. That resolved the problem.
Every night, Pappy would go up the flight of stairs and check that his kids were safely tucked into bed and then he would return to the main floor. Four beloved kids could not coax him to break the rule, just once a day he would climb those stairs.
Christmas morning, there were stockings filled with goodies and presents for all. I do not remember any thing I received that year 'cept for finally having my real dog. It was a wonderful Christmas indeed. Puppy kisses awoke us that morn. Pappy had come upstairs in spite of the rule for that morning after all was Christmas.
For 12 years our Christmas photos contained a black dog sleeping among the presents and were filled with sweet memories that Pappy faithfully provided us year after year.
I sometimes do dream of a "White Christmas" because of that one Christmas long long ago when the real and a real black puppy made my spirit bright.
I was six and it seemed like the holidays took forever to arrive. Cooking eggs for Easter took at least 300 hours to be ready and waiting for Christmas to come took a whole eternity. I believe a "Mother minute" which has absolutely no reality to real time either emerged out of holiday timing. A few days, a few minutes....they did not move by regular time when a sprig of holiday was added to the mix. So for an eternity that year, I awaited Christmas.
Growing up in the valley in California meant dreaming of Christmas, but it was not dreaming of a white one like ones we use to know. We only knew green dry ones. But taking a holiday trip to the "
" was almost as good. This was the Christmas season that we took a trip to a friend's home in Grass Valley. There was real
and the excitement of holidays soon be there. Upon entering the house, I no longer cared about Christmas for in this home lived a white poodle and her 2 puppies. These were a whoops litter. The black cocker from up the way had fathered the little mongrels. The little female already had a home, but the black male needed one. I have no memory of how it came to be that he came home with us, but he did.The black pup had a white Santa beard and so he was named Pappy.
Soon the inevitable happened with my brother's allergies and the doctor told my mother that having the dog would kill my brother with his asthma. She told the doctor that it will kill my youngest if the dog leaves. So a compromise was arranged, the dog would stay on the main level of the house and not be upstairs where the kids slept. That resolved the problem.
Every night, Pappy would go up the flight of stairs and check that his kids were safely tucked into bed and then he would return to the main floor. Four beloved kids could not coax him to break the rule, just once a day he would climb those stairs.
Christmas morning, there were stockings filled with goodies and presents for all. I do not remember any thing I received that year 'cept for finally having my real dog. It was a wonderful Christmas indeed. Puppy kisses awoke us that morn. Pappy had come upstairs in spite of the rule for that morning after all was Christmas.
For 12 years our Christmas photos contained a black dog sleeping among the presents and were filled with sweet memories that Pappy faithfully provided us year after year.
I sometimes do dream of a "White Christmas" because of that one Christmas long long ago when the real
and a real black puppy made my spirit bright.