
Originally Posted by
Gary O
Stories?
Moi?
Dawgs
I have some fond thoughts of our beagle, Joey.
Gotta say, he was my dog, even though he was meant for the boys.
Yeah, he was my deer dog.
Man, he could flush ‘em out.
The only thing is, I could never get him to run ‘em to me.
Oh, he could run ‘em by me.
On the dead run, hopping, leaping galloping.
So, we mostly just got our exercise. All three of us.
We had this neighbor lady, my wife’s friend.
Smug.
She was the neighborhood pre-google era self-proclaimed font of all info ever known.
Had that all knowing, smirky smug smile when you argued with her, even when she was obviously in over her head.
I may have actually hated her.
She was a churchy.
Always pressing my lady to ‘come, enjoy the wonderfulness of salvation’.
Yeah, that lady irritated the hell outta me.
There was that one time, however, that I most enjoyed.
She was in our front yard, all hunkered down, lettin’ Joey lick her face.
Man, he was goin’ at it, didn’t miss a spot.
‘Uh, that dog has some peculiar habits, you might reconsider him licking yer face.’
‘Oh, dogs have the cleanest of mouths, and he loves me.’
(OK, I won’t mention him just now gobbling up his own vomit from over indulging in yer compost pile, then crapping and dining on that).
‘Yeah, he really likes you. Boy, you sure have a way with animals.’
‘ I was raised on a farm.’
‘Yes, I can see that. Surely can.’
Joey was probably the smartest dog I ever had.
Not bring me my slippers smart, but he had a logic about him.
I’ve never really had a dumb dog.
Just some that didn’t seem to have much of a plan.
I have writ a passel of short stories, some in books.
Mac and Velma’s
Back in the ‘70s,
….before ‘coffee shops’,
before anyone knew what a Starbucks was,
a little cafe sat at the edge of hwy 30, between Linnton and St Johns, smack dab in the middle of Portland’s northwest industrial section of mostly huge tanks of gas, diesel and oil.
They just opened for breakfast, closing at around 11 AM.
Mac was a long retired Marine.
Grey hair in a crew cut, high and tight.
A tattoo on his forearm, not ones like today, just a simple anchor.
Velma was the chief cook and bottle washer.
Didn’t see her much, just heard her, bangin’ pots and pans, flippin’ hotcakes.
Mac was the entertainer and pourer of coffee.
Always wiping his hands on the little bar towel tied to the front of his white apron.
White short sleeve shirt.
Stiff collar.
The tiny place was always spick and span.
Simple.
Mostly white and chrome.
A dozen red stools at the wooden counter.
Three padded booths.
‘There he is, last of the all time greats!’ was his typical greeting of a trucker that pulled his tanker rig into the gravel parking lot.
Of a cold morning, after working all night, I’d stop there, needing a shot of joe for the 30 bleary miles to the house.
The coffee was always good.
Back when coffee was just coffee.
They call it ‘house brew’ now.
Mac would yard a plain cake donut outta the glass lidded pedestal container for me with his dinner plate sized hand.
‘How ya doin’ kid?’
I was not an all time great.
Truckers, gnarly truckers, with gravel for voices, and road maps for faces, they were the all time greats.
The donut was not sweet, but a saccharine contrast to the java.
I’d listen to Mac’s snappy patter with the truckers.
Sardonic retorts to Mac’s rhetoric was pure entertainment.
Everyone looked forward to the upbeat boost Mac would give them.
It was a good start to another day.
I drove by that spot not long ago.
The little café is gone.
Mac and Velma may very well have taken it with them.
Last of the all time greats.
.....wait, you might mean cabin stories.......I got summa those too.
Maybe after my little pictorial is finished
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