A Boy and his Dog Bob

I remember laying for months on the living room sofa in my parent’s home in West Bountiful, two houses down from my grandparents.  The house in the middle was Uncle Merle’s home.  I had pneumonia and in those days there were no antibiotics and no way of treating that illness.  One day my dog Bob came racing in and jumped up with his muddy paws on my pillow and began licking my face.  My dog came in to visit every day…that day he came in with muddy paws. That mud stain on the pillow case was ingrained forever.  He stayed with my grandparents in their barn.  I hadn’t been to visit him for quite awhile and so he came to see me, muddy paws and all.  After I had recovered from pneumonia I was in the same living room when I heard tires screeching out in front of the house.  I rushed to the door and there was my relative, Afton Hatch Moss.  Afton was crying because she had hit and killed my dog.  I felt so bad about my dog’s death and took quite a while to resolve the feelings I had for Sis. Hatch.  Sis. Hatch was my second grade teacher and was the teacher that cracked the ruler over my head for sticking the girl’s pigtail in the inkwell. 

(Ralph M. Jackson- grade school years)

Mickey and sister, Doreen