by Ray Collett

Hello Readers, This week brings another story from Chester Taylor (Class of 1961). "Chuck" and his wife Virginia East Taylor (Class of '61) are regular email contributors to the Rockwood Memories column. Last week, we were told about his "mean ole rooster", This week he is going to tell about his "dumb ole dog."

Go ahead and tell us about it "Chuck".

Chester writes," Well, I told you I would tell you a couple of stories about things that happened to me while I was growing up in Rockwood. I told you about the mean rooster we had. Here is another one. We had a dog, I can't remember his name. (Seems like we always had at least one dog). He acted like he was the meanest dog on the face of the earth. He barked and growled at everyone that came down the road. The only thing he showed any respect for was a rooster we had that had called his bluff and had put the spurs to him a couple of times. So the dog managed to stay out of the way when the rooster was on the prowl. You could usually tell when the rooster was near. The dog would choose that time to come and sit near someone. Really he was a chicken "that dressed like a dog). He learned early on what a rock could do to him if he was slow in getting out of the way."

"We had an older lady that lived upon the mountain just above us. Her mail box was on a board with several others including ours. When she would come down to check her mail, this dog would run out to the edge of the yard and act like he was going to eat her alive. He really had her scared. She asked our Mom to keep him tied up so he could not hurt her. My Mom told her he was a big coward and all she had to do is bend over and pick up a rock and he would run away and leave her alone."

So the next time she came to check the mail and he ran out barking and growling, she did just that. He saw her pick up the rock and he ran away sideways, barking over his shoulder. Not looking where he was going, he ran right in front of a car! It rolled him over a few times and spit him out the back. You could hear him bumping along under the car yelping for help. He crawled to the house howling and whining and went under the house. He stayed there for a few days whining and moaning and licking his wounds. He crawled, and limped around for a week or so. He had a lot of hair missing and some limbs that jotted out at odd angels. He had to lay down to eat and drink. I think the rooster made fun of him a lot after that. The dow would growl very low at the rooster when he was around, but was not loud enough for the rooster to hear him." From that day on, if he saw the old lady coming, he would run and get under the porch and whine, and cry. I believe he though she had him with something big that really hurt and he did not want anymore of that. He never bothered her again. In fact, he became a pretty nice dog. I can't remember him bothering anyone after that."

Thanks Chester, I think that we all had our share of dogs growing up. Keep the emails and regular mail coming in, I am sure the readers would enjoying sharing your memories of "growing up.".......Until next week, Ray