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Cat, Dog or Pony? & Winner's Choice Giveaway

5/13/2012

10 Comments

 

Cat, Dog or Pony?

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What's your history with pets?

This early 50's photo of Uncle Paul, my mom's brother, gave me the idea for a post on pets - those animals we've loved and shared our homes with.

Although I don't know the names of Uncle Paul's cat and dog, they look similar to ones I've shared companionship with in the photos below of my childhood.

This photo reminds me of the dog Mamma and Pappa had during my visits with them. They called him Koira (with a rolled 'r'). I thought it was a beautiful name until Mamma said Koira is really the word 'dog' in the Finn language. 

Another photo of Paul when he was even younger, is the one below where he's standing with Valentine, a milk calf, who was only a couple days old.

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Young Paul with Valentine who was a couple days old when this was taken.
Back in the late '60s we lived in Port Arthur, Ontario (now Thunder Bay) at the head of Lake Superior. The summer before I turned 12 we moved to a farm 7 miles out and that's where the following photos were taken.

When we lived in town, Dad had bought us mini-bike, but we weren't allowed to drive it. Within a few weeks of moving to the farm, he'd traded the mini-bike to the neighbours for a pony.
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Anita Mae, 12 yrs old
Flicka was a Shetland pony and because Dad brought her home the day before my 12th birthday, I always - secretly - considered her my horse. It was just as well because none of the other kids wanted to ride or take care of her. It was possible they didn't want to put up with her antics.

When I look at the above photo now, I see that I was kind of big for her, but at the time she seemed the perfect size.  Except for her width. Shetlands are known for their wide bellies, which is why many people buy the narrower Welsh ponies for their kids. Sheltlands are also known for their...ah... not-so-nice dispostion. This proved true when Flicka put up such a fuss whenever I tried to give her the bit and then saddle her. I can't tell you how many times she nearly stepped on my toes while I was trying to tighten up the cinch. And that was another thing -  I never could get the cinch tight enough because she extended her belly and then seemed to suck it in later when I was bouncing around on her back.  Flicka never ran, she trotted everywhere and I'm sure I looked like a sack of potatoes up there. She almost lost me and the saddle a few times. But what I really didn't like was when she turned her head to snap at my knees without warning.

All things considered though, I had a horse and wasn't about to complain about it.

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Buttons in front with Peter 4, Bonnie 14, and Anita Mae 12,
The cat in this photo is Buttons. I remember someone handing Buttons to me on one of our moving trips to the farm. I was told to put a towel over her head so that she couldn't see where we were taking her or she'd try to make her way back home.

Buttons was a short-haired domestic with a nice disposition. Although I'm not a cat person, I didn't mind when Buttons jumped on my lap and cuddled while I read my books in my playhouse. There was no glass and Buttons would go through the window and sleep on the chair when I wasn't around. One time, I smelled skunk as I neared my playhouse. Buttons was lying on the chair, all perfumed up in the worst way. Of course my chair took on the odor. We tried bathing Buttons, but in the end decided to keep our skin and let her clean herself. It tooks weeks before I could go inside and read.

In the next photo, the outbuilding behind Johnny was my playhouse. Originally a grainary, it might have been used for a playhouse by the family who lived there before us. About 5'x5', it contained an over-stuffed chair and small bookcase although I can't remember if they were there when we moved in or if my parents moved them there from the house.

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Suzie with 9 yr old Johnny in 1969, Thunder Bay, Ontario

Dad brought Suzie home just after we moved to the farm. She was our guard dog and protector and was only let loose during the night. I didn't spend much time with her because I didn't like dog smell. And whenever I petted Suzie on the way to my playhouse, Buttons acted like I betrayed her.

Yet I felt safe knowing Suzie was protecting us. Especially after I saw a timber wolf out strolling near the barn one Saturday during the winter. A thick layer of snow already covered the ground and more was softly falling. I looked out the kitchen window and saw the grayish movement on the white landscape. That day was so still, it was eerie. The wolf padded across the snow toward the barn and then behind it. I don't know why Suzie didn't raise the alarm. Within seconds, the wolf appeared on the other side of the barn and kept going toward the west. That's my only wolf sighting to date and I'm fine with not seeing another one that close. I may have been in the safety of the house, but I knew danger when I saw it.

What about you? What pets did you have in your childhood? And if  you didn't have one, what would you have liked to have?


Related Author Memories posts with Pets or Playhouses:
Penny Zeller -
The Dream House (playhouse)
Christa Allan - Camellia Manor: Back to the 1840s (1890 photo of girl and cat)
Valerie Hansen -
Writin' and Ropin' (pony)
Jennifer AlLee -
A Girl's Best Friend (chihuahua saves the day)


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GIVEAWAY - Winner's Choice!
Leave a comment with a valid email address by midnight, May 20th
to be entered in a draw for a book from my giveaway pile.
If you're the winner, I'll email you the list and you can pick. 

The pile contains an assortment of books including inspirationals, mainstream,
autobiographies, self-help, devotionals and children's books, all new.

And yesterday I added the latest Dean Koontz novel, What the Night Knows, to the pile. 
Winner beware!
I haven't read Dean Koontz, but I understand his books are NOT of the inspirational genre, nor are they for the faint of heart.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And how did I end up with a Dean Koontz novel? That's a story in itself...
If you read Regency, you probably know the works of NYT best selling author, Mary Balogh. Mary and I often travel to meetings of the Saskatchewan Romance Writers (SRW) together. This past Saturday when I stopped to pick her up, she thunked a small suitcase into the back of my van and told me she was running away from home. She was joking.

It turned out this generous author was bringing copies of her new hardcover novel,
The Proposal, as well as a paperback copy of Dean Koontz' latest novel,
What the Night Knows, to give each member in attendance.
(Lesson: if you don't attend the meeting, you might miss something great!) 

I took a photo of Mary signing her own book, and
another one with Mary holding her book with the cover facing us. 
I sent to the later one to Mary, and it now appears on her Facebook page  
as well as the official explanation of why she's promoting DK.
(Hint - she received his in error)
 
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10 Comments

Mom's School Books & a Giveaway

4/30/2012

27 Comments

 

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Have you ever wondered what your parents learned in school?

My mom knows I like books, especially old ones, and she gave me a box of them a while back. I found them again while looking for some old photo albums.

It wasn't until I opened them that I realized they were her old Grade 7 & 8 school books.

Arithmetic

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If you've been following Mamma's Memoirs which I presented in four parts, you'll know my mom was Mary, the middle Kakkonen daughter. However, when they started school, Pappa and Mamma changed their last name to Henrekson. At least that's how Mamma wrote it in her Memoirs.

On this post, I'll show you how my mom wrote it as Mary Hendrickson.

The image to the left and below is Mom's Arithmetic book. What strikes me as funny is the stickers. I didn't know they had stickers back in the 50's. If you look close, the stickers say, "Made in Czechoslovakia." I wonder where she got them.

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Composition and Grammar

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Canadian History

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British History

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Seasonal Activities

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Okay, this one had me stumped until I looked at the topics. I believe this is for art.
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Reader: Over the Bridge

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Mathematics

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Literature?

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Dark Horse is a novel so I'm assuming it was a literature class. It lists my mother, Mary, and her brothers, William and David, which signifies it was handed down. Since William - or Billy as everyone called him - died in a highway accident when he was only 16 (as mentioned in part 4 of Mamma's Memoirs) this is the only thing I have that ever belonged to him. I never met my Uncle Billy as Mom was carrying me at the time of the accident.

Also, the name at the top of this page, Grace Spillenaar, brings warm memories to mind because the Spillenaar family was very good friends with Mamma while they lived in the area. A missionary family, the Spillenaars moved a few hours south to Round Lake where they started a ministry preaching the gospel to the Inuit. I remember John and Tyyne Spillenaar’s bush plane with "Wings of the Gospel" written on the side. John Spillenaar is the founder of Arctic Missions Outreach.

However, what got me wondering if this book really was for literature class was the book itself. If you read the first page below, the character has smoked his cigarette to the stub and is wishing he had a cold bottle of beer. In a Grade 8 school book? Really?
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This may not have been a school book. I have half a dozen books which my mom bought as an adult through the Doubleday Book Club and she wrote her name in the front of each one.

With Mom using these books in 1951/52 means they're over 60 yrs old. Wow.
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Mary Hendrickson, 13 yrs old, 1951
Do you collect old books?
What is the oldest one you have?
What is the oldest one you'd like to have?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GIVEAWAY!
Leave a comment with a valid email address by midnight, May 6th
to be entered in a draw for a book from my giveaway pile.
Winner's Choice.
The pile contains an assortment of books including inspirationals, mainstream, autobiographies, self-help, and devotionals.
If you're the winner, I'll email you the list and you can pick. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
27 Comments
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