~ Cheerleading, Parakeets, & Ducks ~

"Number 13...number 13, please?"

It was in May of 1964 that we moved from Winchester Avenue to Rt. 5. Out in the country...at least it was far from the "town-life" that I had been raised in thus far! Before we moved though, I had wanted to be a cheerleader for so long! Isn't that about every young girl's dream when they get in Junior High and High School?! Well I was in the 7th-8th grades and I was only about 85-90 pounds! I wasn't even 5 feet in height and so therefore I was one of the smallest girls there and they could all lift me easily and all that kind of thing...to say the least, I was a cheerleader's dream for lifting and tossing around! I never reached a hundred pounds til I was out of 9th grade! Boy! To see those days again! Anyway, Mother agreed to let me stay after school everyday for about four weeks, I think, for practice. I got really good if I do say so myself and then came the big day to "strut our stuff" in front of the whole school! Oh my gosh! You talk about "butterflies" in the stomach! Well I thought I was going to "barf" up breakfast, and have to take a "rain- check for lunch"! Besides, can YOU blame ME? It was Friday the 13th! And not only that, I was 12 going on 13 and besides that I was #13 in line...and so needless to say, I was sitting up in the bleachers when they called my name and nearly shrunk inside myself so not to be noticed! I gave it all up out of fear! So there went my big chance for "fame and fortune" (sorry Dallas Cowboys...maybe next time! LOL!)

"Bunny & Pete"

Well we had moved up on Rt. 5, outside of Ashland and there I was a new girl who was now going to be starting a new school...and being from town (you know how the town kids and the county kids are?) Fight til the death! So I was starting the 11th grade in September! I met a friend right next door named Jeri...she was a real sweetie! She had a sister named Linda and they were both very nice to me. Daddy had built Mother a new brick, ranch-style house with a breeze-way in the middle. The middle separated the house from Mother's antique shop. She had had the antique shop for several years, so she kept the sign that Daddy had made for her called: Virginia's Antique Shop. It was spring time and such a lovely time of year! All the new flowers and green grass and new trees budding...but not at this new house! The grass had been planted and had not come up yet...the shrubs around the house looked like little green toad stools! And the trees? What trees? The new ones that had been planted would take years to grow! But Mother had a green thumb and by summer the whole yard was alive with colours! Amazing lady! My Aunt Hazel called one morning and then came by later with two little parakeets...a blue one with black and green feathers mixed on him and a little short fat yellow "budgie" with black streaked feathers on her wings. The male was called "Pete" (he was the blue one) and the little yellow one was called "Bunny". The male was mean and would bite any of us and wouldn't let us hold him or even get on our finger! What a little jerk he was! She had them for about a year or so and decided she didn't want them any more because of the mess they made in her house...so she gave them to us! I was fairly happy...except for the cage cleaning days and all that stuff! When they would hang on the side of their cage and flap their wings like crazy, the bird feed and husks would fly all over the floor! But it wasn't long before "Bunny" made up for the mess! She was a little lover! "Pete" took off flying one day when we were cleaning the cage and right out the back door and up in the woods! We tried and tried to get him to come back, because we could hear him "calling" up in the trees and doing their "squawking" noises...but after a week I guess the other birds killed him because we didn't hear him after that. "Bunny" missed him terribly and so Mother went to town and bought a plastic birdie and hooked it over the perch inside the cage and "Bunny" would just chirp and squawk at it and kiss it and run to the mirror and kiss the "birdie in the mirror" and back to her little plastic bird! She came out of the cage on our finger, and would kiss us on the lips or cheek... and wouldn't fly anywhere but instead would stay on the floor and follow us as we went through the house, calling to us and we would call her and she would answer and cock her little head to listen, then follow our voices into the rooms where we were at...she was so smart and sweet! She especially loved Daddy! He would be in bed (in their back bedroom, with the door closed) and call to her and she would come down to her open door and call to him then listen, he would holler her name again and she would fly down to the floor and then from there she would "call to him" and follow his voice to the bedroom and stand at the door doing a different cooing sound to him til we let her in the room...then she would fly upon the bed and waddle up the covers atop his belly and up to his face and sit right by his cheek and pull his stubbled beard and then kiss him squawking in the meantime because she had to wait at the door! We had her for a good year or so and then one day in 1966 I came home from school and Mother told me she had just fallen off the perch and died in the bottom of her cage...she had wrapped her up and put her in a plastic bag and in a sealed coffee can and put it in the bottom of the fridge (some of you may say UGH! but what would you do if you sincerely loved a little thing like that and she was so dear to all of us...so Mother wanted to wait til I got home so we could bury her together)...so we took the can outside and I took one last look at her and cried many tears for the little "ray of sunshine" that brought a lot of love and laughter to our lives! Then we dug a deep hole and buried her there in our back yard on Rt. 5. There has NEVER been another "Bunny" and never again will be for me!

"Ludwig & Vondrake"

One spring day just around easter time Mother and I drove into town with Daddy and went to the G.C. Murphey's "five & dime" department store. They had all kinds of little coloured chicks and ducks! Oh man did I ever want a duck of my own! So they bought me wo little ones. The Purple one I named "Ludwig" and the pink one I named "Vondrake"...but of course this was after a week when their colour came out with their downy feathers! And they were both yellow! So much for picking out pretty coloured duckies at the store! I had those little guys for a few months or so and then someone from the county came out and told Daddy and Mother that we couldn't have farm animals on our land! Right across the road my girlfriend, Sharon, had all kinds of animals! Chickens and all! But they were allowed to keep them on that side of the road, but we weren't! Now does that make any kind of sense to you?! Well it sure didn't to me, I tell you that much! So we had to take "Ludwig" and "Vondrake" out to the real country (to my Uncle & Aunt's farm house on Ison Creek, just outside of Grayson, Kentucky) and there is where those little guys stayed and spent out their remaining years. When we visited our "country-kin", we would always check on "Ludwig" & Vondrake", and they were there for a long time as I remember...and those were the last little ducks I ever owned as pets too! It's a crazy world when you can't have an animal because of restrictions, but right across from you, your friend can have any kind of animals (horses, cows, chickens..etc.) she wanted!

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