Grandpa Abe’s cure for the Acne

The only Grandpa I knew was my Grandpa Abe who married my Dad’s mom and took on the responsibility of her 3 kids and his own one. He was a big imposing man with very large hands. My dad said when he was 18 years old Grandpa took both of my dad’s wrists in one hand and made him holler Uncle. An athlete in his youth in Kansas he pitched a good baseball game. When my dad was a teenager the subject of acne came up. Grandpa Abe said he had the sure fire cure for the Acne. My dad passed this on to me when I was very small and I surely had no idea what the “Acne” was at that...

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Chocolate Brown Dog

Chocolate Brown Dog

One of the most rewarding things I’ve done in my life is adopting a dog. I decided to stop at our local vet one day and asked if they knew anyone who had a small, adult dog for adoption. The vet only hesitated a bit and told his assistant to go get Chocolate out of the back. When I first saw her I was a little disappointed account she was a bit bigger than I was looking for. I’d sat down in a chair and she came over got on her hind legs and put her paws on my thigh, then she looked at me with her big brown eyes. My heart melted, but I said I’d have to go and check with my...

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Way out in the sticks

Way out in the sticks

My wife’s cousin Carol who was raised around Ledger, Montana wrote the other day about rural Montana. She said she figures with Montana there’s rural, very rural, and way the hell out in the sticks rural. I know what she is talking about. …with Montana there’s rural, very rural, and way the hell out in the sticks rural. When I tell my kids we had running water out on the farm, I meant we went to the pump house about 75 yards from the house and we pumped water into pails and we ran to the house with the pails. I carried a lot of water buckets to the house, I always...

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Old Dogs

Old Dogs

I’ve had dogs since I can remember. When I was little my Dad would say we will make a good dog out of him, cut his tail off right behind his ears. Took quite awhile to figure that one out when I was young. Whenever you would ask my Dad about how many friends he had he would always raise his index finger and point at the dog. I know how he feels some days, when everything and everyone seems far away or distant all I have to do is reach out my hand and there is a dog. My, my I miss some of my old dogs. Old Mookie, a crippled up Peke, who could run faster than most little dogs on three...

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Visiting

My son reminded me the other day when we where in Helena for a wedding about my dad and visiting. Whenever we went someplace to visit relatives or friends he would say,” It’s always nice to go, but it’s twicet as nice to come home.” No I did not spell the word twicet wrong that is the way he said it. If you tried to correct him, he ignored you and went on about his business. His business apparently I’ve discovered after all these years was to make sure you were paying attention. He loved to scramble words and this always caught your attention. If some one had...

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