It Caught My Eye: Could Write (Another) Book – PART TWO
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By Bob Frakes, For the Sentinel
TRUTH IS STRANGER THAN FICTION – As Jonathan Winters once said in “It’s a MAD,MAD,MAD, MAD World” – “Now what I’m gonna tell you, you just ain’t gonna belive it coulda happened” – but it did! I was asleep one night in north MV and felt a scratching behind my ear. I woke up and flipped the light switch on the wall by the bed – ???. Must have been dreaming, light off and back to sleep. The something runs across my chest. I wasn’t dreaming then. I looked over under the edge of a small coffee table and there was a nose and two eyes checking me out. I thought THAT is one big mouse. I closed the door behind me, slept on the couch that night and called the landlord the next morn before work. When I got home the bedroom door was open and a note said they had checked it out – nothing. OK, I opened the dresser drawer and something had been nesting in my t- shirts. I called and they came back over. Since the bedroom was the last place “IT” was spotted we started there and took all the items to the other small bedroom. As I lifted the coffee table up, a RAT ran between my legs and right into the other bedroom which now had items stacked here and there. The landlord said, it is in there, let’s get it. I grabbed my golf putter and they picked up a balsa wood log I used in my model making. I closed the door and it immediately charged me. By the way when confronted about 80% of rats will flee and about 20% fight. They can also tread water for two days, survive a fall from two stories, squeeze through a hole the size of a quarter and withstand massive amounts of radiation. If we nuke the world they may take over.
Anyway, when it charged me I jumped back, caught my rear on the door handle and ripped it right off the door – trapped. It ran in circles, I could deal a death blow with the club but could not hit it and the landlord could hit it with the balsa but not stop it. It finally crawled up in exhaustion behind the desk, I crawled over the mess and bombed it with my putter – RIP!
Well behind the water heater we found several holes cut for pipes and never used. We covered those with metal, no more rats although I knew rats had to chew or die. If you put them in a glass box their teeth will grow right up through the top of their mouths and they will die. After my “close encounter of the third kind” I studied them closely.
CUMBERLAND WOODS – My next stop, after getting married and needing some more space, was Cumberland Woods. It was handy as it ran right by Mom & Dad’s house. Nice affordable place BUT the Holiday Inn Band of the month rented the apartment next door and came in around 1 at night ready to “compose”. Nuff said there! It was time to try and buy a house. My first teaching salary was $6,900/year so we could not afford much of a house and there was not
much to move. We did finally purchase a home in Bonnie, which was about 50 years ago. The house has worked out fine and the community as well. I think if I live here another 50 years, I may be a native :).
With half a century of tales, it would be hard of course to pick out a fav. However, I think I will go with Halloween. The community always had a nice celebration; it kind of slipped some and now is on the rebound. One fun item was the kids from Waltonville where I taught would dress up and come over for their candy bar. Candy bars for the little kids, candy bars for the big kids. In the picture you see one group. Left to right (I think) –Justin “old man” Newell, Amanda “Tin Man” Worley, Kellen Minor, Kerri “Witch of the East or West?” Dees, Blake Jones, Jennifer “the Lion” Kabat & Josh Newell. They were known to bring a roll of TP now and then but I always had my “ace in the hole” beagle Pinky of the pink nose to apprehend culprits. It was her fav time of the year. She would act like she was going to eat them alive, and – then as a roll flew troted around looking up in the night sky. Lots of good memories!
Questions, Comments or Answers? robert_frakes@Yahoo.com or news@morningsentinel.com
