Tuesday, August 30, 2011

God, thanks for Benji!

This is our dog Benji. He is a Yorkie. Can you see how innocent and cute he looks? Yes, he is about as adorable as a doggy can be. There lies the problem. He is so spoiled rotten he gets away with just about anything he wants. He runs the house HIS way and lets us know he's the boss!
I remember when we first met him he didn't even bark. He just rolled on his back and let us rub his little belly. What a con artist. He knew just what he needed to do to suck us into his trap.

He began taking control by pooping all over the house when and where he wanted. No manner of coercion could dissuade him from pooping inside instead of outside. So we started putting "puppy pads" all over the house in hopes he would go on them. What a laugh! He preferred the carpet to do his doo doo, and would frequently eat his feces to gross us out completely! I believe his plan was to make us so frustrated and helpless that we would do ANYTHING to make him stop his bad behavior. ( We finally got trained)



One of his diabolical plans was stealing something from the trash that he wasn't supposed to eat or could choke him, like aluminum foil, and running with it. Well, the only way we could catch him was by giving him a doggie treat. It took us a long time to realize he was playing us for suckers. He knew that if he grabbed something he wasn't supposed to have he would get a treat. By the way, he STILL does that.




Of course, Benji won. He barks at us when he wants his treats, he climbs up on my lap and bites my nose when he wants to go for a walk, and we love him so much because he has this little attitude and personality that is totally unique and funny. He is great with our grandaughters and they think he is awesome. We wouldn't want him any other way. Let's face it, he is not boring! What love God showed in creating dogs for us. God, thank you for our little Benji!


The Little Rascals!



You've gotta admit that this photo looks like something from the "Little Rascals", right? I can see kids that look a bit like Alfalfa, Darla, Butch, Scotty, and even Mickey! (Played by Robert Blake, who was also Berretta)
Anyway, this was the gang in the St. Louis housing projects where I spent my formative years. That is me in front eating something, as usual.


The only reason I showed you this old photo is because I absolutely love old photos! Especially the ones where they don't s
mile. It looks like they're standing in front of a firing squad in some of those old pictures!, like they're scared to death! Maybe they thought the camera would steal their soul.
The photo to the right is of my great grandma and grandpa who lived WAY back in the Ozark mountains of south east Missouri. They were hard, rough and tough folks
who farmed and ran a sawmill. You can tell how hard a life they lived when you realize they were only 29 when this picture was taken. Just kidding.
This is not about them, anyway. I just want you to see the cool old photos.




Here's a good one of my Mom holding my big brother Dave ( Who is 76 years old now), my Grandma and my Aunt Mel. Notice my Mom has a smile on her face?
That was my Mom. Always cheerful, singing, whistling (She could whistle beautifully, that was BIG back then), and laughing. She didn't care if nobo
dy else was smiling, if she wanted to smile nobody was gonna stop her! But, this isn't about my Mom or Grandma, OR Aunt Mel.
This is about the wonderful old photos from the "olden days!"










Don't you love this one? Well, I do. Remember my Grandma in the photo up above? Well, this is my Grandma with the light hair and her sister Alice with the dark hair. Or vice versa. I think that is correct but I'm not really sure. The shoes are awesome, aren't they?

They just don't make people like my Grandma and Aunt Alice anymore. I remember when...
Oh, right, I'm getting off the subject again. This is all about old photographs, not my relatives.










Super cool picture of my Dad in front of an antique car! Of course, it wasn't antique then, was it?

My Dad was the greatest baseball player I ever saw. He tried out for the Cardinals and when they called him back for his final tryout he had broken his collar bone. Then ww2 broke out and he went into the Army and...There I go again! This isn't about my Dad!
I hope you enjoyed the old photos!