A Tribute to Man's Best Friend

When someone special touches your life, it is incredibly difficult when they go. Such was the case with our beloved Lou. Please travel with me on a brief look at our journey together as a family.

We got Lou when our children were young. He was our third child so to speak.

Giving Lou an old sock to play with was one of the biggest mistakes we ever made. He made a career out of stealing shoes and socks that lasted a lifetime.

We quickly realized he was more active (and mischevious) than your average Labrador Retriever, so obedience classes were soon in order. We practiced on regular walks around the neighborhood in the hope teaching Lou the importance of minding his manners (and wearing him out). Then it was decided the sport of dog agility might be a good activity for him. After all, he loved to run and jump.

We took agility classes and practiced and practiced. Finally, I thought it would be fun to compete in an agility trial. Does our four legged friend look like he is having fun or what?

Thank you to Kathleen Schaffer of Pup Art for permission to post the above 3  pictures of Lou taken at an event in Tempe, Arizona.
She is also on Facebook with examples of her beautiful collages.

Agility helped Lou to keep his mind engaged in activities other than stealing the kids toys, food off the counter, and generally teasing and terrorizing our family. At least we would like to think it did!

In the summers he travelled with us to Whidbey Island in Washington State where he loved to run, play fetch on the beach, and make friends with whoever came along.

Oldest Daughter regularly played Hide and Seek with Lou. It's hard to believe but she really was able to hide from him! She and her dad also loved to play Catch (or Keep Away) in the family room.

Youngest Daughter had a unique bond with Lou as well. He took particular pleasure in sneaking into her room to steal things or get into her trash. If Youngest Daughter left a bagel unattended on the kitchen counter in the morning while getting ready for school, even for just a few seconds, it was gone in a flash. It was common to hear screams of "Get Out!" and "Moooommmmm, call the dog, he took my _____[fill in the blank with anything you can think of]!"

As the years went on, Lou did settle down (somewhat) and all of us enjoyed his company, his positive outlook on life, walks together, games, and belly rubs. When the girls had their teenage friends over, there was Lou right in the middle of them watching TV, hanging out and getting more than his fair share of belly rubs.

Lou's outlook on life was so good that when, unbeknownst to any of us, cancer began to invade his lungs, he plowed on with his happy, exhuberant energy going on our daily walks and even attending Youngest Daughter's college softball game. A couple of short days later, we realized something was wrong.

Lou on his last walk.

After he was diagnosed with lung cancer, we brought Oldest Daughter home to say her goodbyes as the two of them had a particularly special bond. He perked up immensely on her arrival and they had a wonderful weekend together.

Then as soon as she left, it was as if Lou knew his time had come and he closed his eyes for the last time that same evening. It was just over two weeks from the time we realized things were not quite right with Lou. Blindingly fast.

We miss Lou terribly and are thankful for our time together and the wonderful memories we are left with. A piece of advice, if I may. If you haven't hugged your loved ones today, please do so. Our time together is way too short. And if your loved one includes a canine friend, give him an extra belly rub from me. The therapeutic value of a good belly rub can never be underestimated - either for the receiver or the giver.

Thank you to my Wonderful Readers for your kind comments and words of support.

URL for this post: http://turning-of-generations.blogspot.com/2012/03/tribute-to-mans-best-friend.html

Thank you again to Kathleen Schaffer of Pup Art for permission to post the agility pictures she took of Lou.

© 2012, copyright Michelle Goodrum

First Airplane Ride - Sharing Memories



Compliments of airplaneclipart.com

This week's prompt for Sharing Memories over at The Olive Tree Genealogy Blog is First Airplane Ride. While mine wasn't nearly as memorable as Lorine's, at least it's memorable in a good way.

It was the mid 1960's and for some reason which to this day, I don't understand, my parents decided we would fly from Seattle to Spokane to visit my grandparents. We always drove and it was only a half day trip so why we flew is anybody's best guess.

While uneventful, the trip was very fun for this little girl. Back in those days, there were no security concerns so we just arrived at the airport and boarded the plan. Also, at that time, when people flew, they dressed up in their very best clothes, like going to church or a wedding or important party. So there was much preparation involved in the way of getting dressed up in some fancy clothes.

The flight itself was very short. Basically up over the Cascades and then right back down. We were served free food and drinks (back then the food and beverage service was free-always) which of course is always fun for a little kid. The best part - being greeted by Grandma and Grandpa when we arrived!

© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

A Scary Halloween Story...

Artwork courtesy of The Vintage Cottage

… At least if you're five or six.

Like most little tykes, we had a parent accompany us around the neighborhood on Halloween. It usually was my mother. This particular year the last house we visited was that of our neighbors, the Cranes, where we performed our annual "Trick or Treat" ritual. We always had to do a trick (like sing a song) for Mrs. Crane then she would give us our treat. We were heading up the street to our house, and were passing the vacant lot between the Crane’s and our home. Of course it was very dark. The vacant lot was full of lots of tall bushes and small stand of alder trees. It was particularly spooky looking on a night like Halloween. I was happily dancing along in front of my mother swinging my bag of Halloween candy, when I noticed this white blob in front of the alder trees that wasn’t normally there. Then started to move! Of course, I hightailed it back to my mom and hid behind her because now the white blob was moving towards us. And it was making these high-pitched ghostlike noises. Yeah, I was scared. Real scared.

All of a sudden from under the white blob emerged my dad laughing his head off. It was one of his practical jokes. He had taken a white shower curtain from the house and used it as his "ghost costume." I eventually recovered from my fright and we all had a good laugh. To this day every year on Halloween I fondly think of my dad and his ghost costume.

Have a safe and maybe a little scary Halloween.


© 2011, copyright Michelle Goodrum

Dance!

The 92nd edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is Dance!

My mother, Colleen, started dancing in the 1930's when she was in third grade. She had problems with her feet so her doctor recommended to her parents that she take dancing lessons, particularly ballet, to help strengthen them.

Initially, she took lessons in the basement of a lady's home and eventually started taking ballet, tap, acrobatics and baton at Ruth Doherty's School of Dance located at the corner of Broadway and East Pine in Seattle. Ruth Doherty's was in the Odd Fellows Temple.

They were a one car family so there was no toting and fetching to and from activities like there is today.  When the family lived in Ballard and later Victory Heights, Colleen's mother would take Colleen and her brother to the studio for lessons on a trolley car (from Ballard) or take the bus. Afterward, they might ride the bus to downtown Seattle and go to the Bon or Frederick and Nelson's. Other days they would go to the Security Market (a farmer's market) and buy groceries and maybe some lunch. Then they would walk to the Yellow Cab Company where Colleen's dad worked as a mechanic and he would take them home.

At Christmas, the dance studio would put on a program for the Shriners at their Shrine Temple. In later years, the Christmas program was held in the Civic Auditorium at what is now the Seattle Center (later the auditorium was remodeled and named the Seattle Opera House and after a more recent renovation Marion Oliver McCaw Hall). The first year their dance program was in their new location, at Civic Auditorium, ended up being a bit of a slippery slope! The dance floor having just been waxed was like ice. The girls had to dance the Can Can and perform cartwheels and flips. They were slipping and sliding all over!

Ruth Doherty's studio also did a program for the Moose Lodge every year. One year they had a horse in the program of which Colleen was the front. She and her partner wore tap shoes and danced a sort of comedy routine.

During World War II, Ruth Doherty would get requests to do programs for service men. Ruth would always give the girls a talk, in front of their parents, that they were not to dance and socialize with the servicemen.  The men loved the programs, especially the little kids, as many had children of their own and were missing them.
 
Colleen danced and assisted with Ruth's classes until her second year in college. Working for Ruth Doherty's School of Dance was Colleen's first job and was how she earned her dance lessons. She would help keep the little girls in their lines, work one on one with some of them in learning their steps and work the front desk.

All those years of dancing while growing up had a significant impact on Colleen. After she enrolled at the University of Washington, Colleen was accepted into Orchesis (a dance honorary) where she did Interpretive Dance. She chose Physical Education as her major and went on to teach PE at West Seattle High School and other schools.

I don't recall my parents going out to dance on Friday or Saturday nights but ever since I can remember, they had season tickets to the Seattle Repertory Theatre. It was always a big deal because they would get all dressed up and we kids got to have a babysitter and sometimes even TV Dinners. Mom and Dad would have seen many fabulous performances by top artists at Seattle Rep over the years.

As a child, I had no interest in dancing and took no dance lessons. However, once disco dancing became popular all that changed. I took my first dance class with a high school friend where we learned The Hustle. Once I was in college, I signed up for Ballroom Dancing. Mom was really happy about that. I can remember her telling me that you never know when it will come in handy. She was right, of course, and the class was so much fun that the next semester I signed up for another dance class. I don't remember what it was called but we learned all the really popular disco type dances of the time.

So in the end, somehow, either Mom passed on her love of dancing to me or I came down with Disco Fever.

Source:
[Mom]. Interviews by Michelle Goodrum. 19 July 1997 and March 2010. Notes. Privately held by Goodrum, [address for private use].

© 2010, copyright Michelle Goodrum