Day 129

9/20/22

Although Ranger and Lilly have a fear of thunderstorms and other loud noises that go "bump" in the night, they both have an intrepid spirit that is enviable. They leap first and ask questions later.

This morning, we were walking down by the river when we realized our Yorkie friends were on a collision course with us. These two are the ones who bark at us and then, when they realize they can't get to us, attack each other! To avoid that encounter, we headed down to the landing. When we got to the river's edge, Lilly went right in! Ranger would have followed, but I reeled them both in! The swim would have been fun, but the river smell later...not so much!

When we were kids growing up in that near-perfect neighborhood, we pulled a number of Lilly and Ranger stunts. We once built a fort in Charlie and Susie's garden that, in my memory, was about five feet deep and had a circumference of about 12 feet! I know I was smaller, but we could get the whole gang in that hole! We added a smoke stack made out of coffee cans and lit a fire. We just couldn't understand why our folks questioned the safety of our "digs" and filled it back in.

Speaking of forts, my sweet grandma (living next door to us) had three HUGE pine trees in her back yard. They formed a room within their embracing arms and we moved right in! We hung windows, added furniture and even had a stash of cookies in case of emergencies. When we found out that someone was sneaking in for a snack, we opened the Oreos and added chili powder within. No more uninvited visitors!

We must have loved forts back in the day. Jumping on our bikes, we headed down to the Mississippi River and discovered a large culvert emerging from the bank. Crawling up that tube was my worst nightmare, but I had a reputation to defend. At the end of the concrete entrance, there was a room with a window up high. We thought it was an amazing hideout until we later shared it with my dad. He allowed us to share the opening at the river and looked down into the concrete room near the road. He gently explained that we had discovered a rain receptacle that, if there happened to be a sudden storm, our fort would fill up quickly and the water would rush down our tunnel to the river. Most of the neighborhood crew was saddened while I was secretly ecstatic! No more claustrophobia!

We also found the most wonderful rope swing at Old Lady Tibidow's house. She had a very small home with an open well in the side yard. We only saw her once when we were throwing rocks down the well. She sweetly asked us to be careful and then disappeared back into her house.

That rope swing!!! We would climb WAY up into the upper branches of an old elm tree, straddle the board tied to a rope and swing out into eternity...or so it seemed. Again, our folks found out and we were told not to partake of that particular adventure again.

For the winter months, we had Killer's Hill! It really was quite the ride and someone even built a toboggan run one year. The only problem was the trees at the end of the ride! More than one bruised and battered friend limped home after an encounter at the end of that ride!

In later years, we would bike over to Mercy Hospital to explore the east addition...after hours of course! To this day, I can't believe that nobody came by to tell us to leave! We would scamper up the open elevator shafts to the 6th floor and admire the view from the open beams. It never occurred to us that we might need the west side of the hospital if our goat-like maneuvers had a misstep.

It's a miracle we all lived through our childhood! We did, however, and I believe we all have fond memories of those adventures.

Lilly and Ranger (and especially Gus and Sam) are a lot like the old neighborhood gang. Choose the adventure and check out the safety measures after the fact! I now seem to play the part of "parent" for my pups' adventures and I tend to give them a little extra leash...but not TOO much!