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REFLECTIONS "Growing up in the 50's"-Chapter 3

Nostalgia Tidbit: It was a time when you rarely saw a purebred

dog. There were no leash laws and no house dogs in our

neighborhood. They roamed freely and there were many. Cats

didn’t have a chance. They were always on the run.

Chapter 3

The Neighborhood Bully

I’ll never forget “ole Butch”, the neighborhood bully.

He was one of the ugliest and meanest looking dogs I

had ever seen. Still to this day, some 50 years later, I

don’t think I’ve seen uglier. Butch dominated our

street where just about every household had at least

one yard dog. They were everywhere. I remember

many nights of unrest due to dogs barking and barking

and barking! I think “ole Butch” chewed on just about

every one of them at one time or another during his

reign.

Sometimes it was unmerciful the way he would flex

his overpowering muscles to ensure his dominance

over all who were brave enough to challenge him.

Finally, one day Butch met his match. Dad had

captured a raccoon “in the wild” and brought it home

where we had it caged most of the time. My two older

brothers made a leash and tied “Mr. Coon” to our

clothes line wire so it would slide along the line as the

raccoon paced back and forth. He really seemed a little

tame especially for a wild animal. Still, we wouldn’t

dare touch him.

The day of reckoning came when “ole Butch” did his

usual strut in to our yard over to the clothes line area

and immediately went into his intimidating “growl

mode”.

Mr. Coon wasn’t fazed in the least. I had to see this! I

could tell this was going to be an interesting moment.

Sure enough, with the quickness of a karate expert, the

coon had Butch on his back fighting for his life. After

a split second and a few swipes with his claws, Butch

was up and running and yelping unmercifully. I can’t

tell you how fulfilling it was to see Mr. Bully on the

run.

A few days later the raccoon escaped never to be seen

again. Even though he was only in our presence a few

days, he had performed a major accomplishment in

bringing the neighborhood bully “to his knees”.

Butch never was the same after that. It seemed he

calmed his aggressions a great deal for the remainder

of his life…. which, by the way only lasted a few more

months.

One day “ole Butch” more than met his match as he

was running across the main highway heading north.

Sadly he met a southbound bus head on. So much for

the “neighborhood bully”. No others ever stepped up to

the plate in an attempt to replace “ole Butch”. In my

imagination, I can still visualize him strutting through

the neighborhood.

REFLECTIONS "Growing up in the 50's" Chapter 2-The Big Dipper

Nostalgia Tidbit: It was very common for the entire family to

drink water out of one glass that sat near the sink, refrigerator or

outdoor well. Sometimes even friends and relatives visiting drank

out of the same glass although usually you tried to avoid such.

Many folks used “metal dippers” to serve that same purpose. We

did!

Chapter 2

The Big Dipper

We didn’t use a lot of glasses when I was growing up.

Nowadays, around the house with only my wife and

me, we probably use more glasses in a day than we had

in our household when I was a kid. The reason we used

so few glasses, except at mealtime, was the fact that

we had “a family dipper”. In case you don’t know what

a dipper is…..it was a metal cup shaped container with

a long handle. It always hung on a nail above the

kitchen sink well within reach of all of us.

Any time we wanted a drink of water, we filled the

dipper with tap water. It really tasted good back then.

When you had your drink, you had better rinse it out

with hot water to kill the germs and then hang it back

on the nail, ready for the next family member to use.

When I say family use, I mean immediate family.

Visitors would have the luxury of using a glass. I will

never forget the time Uncle Joe visited us from

Tennessee. He went straight to the family dipper and

got his drink. Not only did Uncle Joe intrude

on our off limit family dipper but it was also rumored

that he had TB.

Back then, I wasn’t even sure what Tuberculosis was,

but I knew it couldn’t be good for someone to drink

out of the family dipper with such a thing.

Needless to say, that dipper was missing the next day

never to return. I guess washing it with hot water

wasn’t convincing enough to kill the fear of the TB

germ. It was nice drinking out of glasses for a

while…but soon…a new family dipper returned…after

Uncle Joe had gone back home of course! Uncle Joe

never came back to visit.

I think he was pretty old at the time … probably 45 or

so! He actually died shortly after his visit. He died of

TB, we supposed.

I don’t think I ever drank out of a dipper again.