Post by thewisefarmer on Dec 11, 2017 12:21:00 GMT
CHRISTMAS PHOTO
Someplace between drawings on cave walls and digital cameras, professional photographers took annual school pictures and lured us in to shopping malls for annual holiday photo shoots.
I had moved away from my home town, two states away. College was done and my career was being lived out. Yet as it seems that the heart longs to be home for Christmas, plans were made for a trip home for the holidays.
At the mall, I was lured to get a family photos done to take home with me. I wore my beautiful green dress that had red roses on it. My mother had made the formal gown that flowed to the floor in elegant streams of Christmas beauty. It seemed fitting to wear that dress.
"How many family members in the photo?" was the question during the booking.
"Two! Myself and my dog."
The pup had come to live with me many years earlier. She had been dumped at my High School. With over a thousand kids, critters were often dumped there to be scooped up into a loving home. This pup had been there for several days without winning the heart of any child.
The janitor told us that he was going to catch the mongrel and have her taken to be put down. So in spite of the concern of convincing my parents that another dog should reside with us, I took the pup.
I needed that ugly dog as much as she needed me.
I used crutches to ambulate. I put both crutches under one arm and cradled the dog in my other arm, hopping along I brought the pup to my home.
My brother named the dog (part of the deal to keep her - for as families know compromise often gets you the end result that is desired). He named her Rail-Roada, because he collected trains. Later we would find it was a fitting name because she wouldn't "train", wouldn't "track", all she did was "chew chew chew" and she was a little loco with a lot of motive - you know "loco-motive"
Well that loco little dog named Roada became my constant companion. She was a stubborn terrier that was so scruppy that she was admittedly ugly. I in my own stubbornness was able to get the intelligent dog to obey me and together we went out into the world to change it.
And so I arrived with my beloved dog to await our Christmas shoot. Children with doting parents sat in beautiful Christmas attire also waiting for holiday pictures to be taken. The mothers were preening and primping their little ones while I was adjusting the two green bows that adorned Roada.
When it was our turn, several shots were taken. A later date was set to review the proofs and order our photos. A packet full of my family photos were now ready for our trip home.
When I arrived at home in California, the pictures were handed out to family and each time I heard.." a picture of Roada!" and "Cool a photo of Roady!" "Oh I missed that old dog, I love the picture of her!"
"I'm in the picture too!", I said. Oh how sad to be ignored for an ugly dog.
But even after all these years since my ugly sassy dog named Rail-Roada has been gone, I know now those were times that make me still long to have just one more photo with my most cherished "family". For of all the critters in my life, every one knows Rail-Roada was my most cherished. She was indeed "my dog"
Someplace between drawings on cave walls and digital cameras, professional photographers took annual school pictures and lured us in to shopping malls for annual holiday photo shoots.
I had moved away from my home town, two states away. College was done and my career was being lived out. Yet as it seems that the heart longs to be home for Christmas, plans were made for a trip home for the holidays.
At the mall, I was lured to get a family photos done to take home with me. I wore my beautiful green dress that had red roses on it. My mother had made the formal gown that flowed to the floor in elegant streams of Christmas beauty. It seemed fitting to wear that dress.
"How many family members in the photo?" was the question during the booking.
"Two! Myself and my dog."
The pup had come to live with me many years earlier. She had been dumped at my High School. With over a thousand kids, critters were often dumped there to be scooped up into a loving home. This pup had been there for several days without winning the heart of any child.
The janitor told us that he was going to catch the mongrel and have her taken to be put down. So in spite of the concern of convincing my parents that another dog should reside with us, I took the pup.
I needed that ugly dog as much as she needed me.
I used crutches to ambulate. I put both crutches under one arm and cradled the dog in my other arm, hopping along I brought the pup to my home.
My brother named the dog (part of the deal to keep her - for as families know compromise often gets you the end result that is desired). He named her Rail-Roada, because he collected trains. Later we would find it was a fitting name because she wouldn't "train", wouldn't "track", all she did was "chew chew chew" and she was a little loco with a lot of motive - you know "loco-motive"
Well that loco little dog named Roada became my constant companion. She was a stubborn terrier that was so scruppy that she was admittedly ugly. I in my own stubbornness was able to get the intelligent dog to obey me and together we went out into the world to change it.
And so I arrived with my beloved dog to await our Christmas shoot. Children with doting parents sat in beautiful Christmas attire also waiting for holiday pictures to be taken. The mothers were preening and primping their little ones while I was adjusting the two green bows that adorned Roada.
When it was our turn, several shots were taken. A later date was set to review the proofs and order our photos. A packet full of my family photos were now ready for our trip home.
When I arrived at home in California, the pictures were handed out to family and each time I heard.." a picture of Roada!" and "Cool a photo of Roady!" "Oh I missed that old dog, I love the picture of her!"
"I'm in the picture too!", I said. Oh how sad to be ignored for an ugly dog.
But even after all these years since my ugly sassy dog named Rail-Roada has been gone, I know now those were times that make me still long to have just one more photo with my most cherished "family". For of all the critters in my life, every one knows Rail-Roada was my most cherished. She was indeed "my dog"
