A couple more farm dog stories The couple of stories below were told to me by Hazel during my stay with her in August, 2005, after she had had a bad fall. There was time to talk about things we remembered, and this included a couple of dog stories. I had forgotten that they had happened until she remembered and began to reminisce about Brownie one day.
Hazel remembered the time when Clarice lived in the weaning house with her oldest two children, Bob and Carroll (before Gene came along, of course). This was when Aaron was away in the army. Aaron, as well as Mom and Dad, did not want Clarice to spend the nights at the house without another adult with her, so every evening Hazel would go up to spend the night with Clarice and her children. And every evening Brownie would walk up the road with Hazel, then turn around and go back home. Early the next morning when it was time for Hazel to return, Brownie would go up the road to meet Hazel and walk back to our house with her. You can see why Hazel was so fond of such a faithful dog.
Another story that Hazel remembered about Brownie happened during the fall probably during the late 1940’s. It was the time of year when you need a light sweater or jacket in the chilly mornings, but by the warm afternoon, the jacket feels too hot, so you wind up taking it off. Well, one cool autumn morning Dad discovered that his denim work jacket, which we called a “jump jacket”, was gone. He couldn’t find it in the usual places in the house, and so he had Mom start helping him to look for it. Mom was always the one to help him find his jump jacket or shoes or whatever he had misplaced. But that morning the jacket was not to be found. It was Mom (again) who remembered that Dad had probably left his jacket down in the Ellen Bottom where they had been working the day before. So somebody had to go retrieve Dad’s jacket. Mom told Hazel and David to go get it. When Hazel went on an errand like that, Mom always told her to take David or me with her. So she and David walked all the way down to the Ellen Bottom, which required quite a long walk and quite a bit of time. But it was worthwhile. Hazel not only found Dad’s jacket under a tree in the corner of the field, she also found Brownie there lying on top of it. Brownie had been waiting all night for Dad or someone from the family to come and get the jacket. He was a loyal dog all right.
