Thursday, May 17, 2012

Petey, The Republican

Earlier this evening there was a knock on our front door.  John answered.  I heard the exchange of men's voices, a "no thanks" from John and a pleasant farewell by the young man at the door.  I couldn't understand anything else to know what the exchange was actually about.

I automatically assumed a young college man was selling something door to door working his way through school.  I thought perhaps we could have purchased something from the industrious fellow.

I asked John what he was selling.  John told me that he was not selling anything but collecting funds for the democratic party.  The second he heard that, Petey launched himself off the couch with great fury, like he used to do when someone knocked on the door.  We went to great lengths to keep people from knocking on the door to avoid scenes such as this.

Petey puffed his fur up to its greatest volume to make himself as ferocious as possible.  He barked and growled as he scurried around the living room looking for any trace of that intruder like he was going to rip his head off.  Petey was completely calm and quiet up until that point, so we can only assume that he's a republican.  We didn't know dogs held political beliefs.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Petey, The Music Critic


I feel compelled to preface this post with a little walk down memory lane.  I think it will make a little more sense that way.  Who knows though?  I'm not sure how often I ever make sense.

When I was a little girl, on Sunday afternoons after church, Daddy would play gospel music on the stereo.  This was in the days of LPs.  (LP stands for Long Playing record.  They were played on a turntable at 33 1/3 rpm, as opposed to 45s.) We had a very nice stereo so that several LPs  could be stacked.  Once one album was finished another would drop down and play until the entire stack had fallen.  It was really cool.

I have memories of hearing Tennessee Ernie Ford and his deep, rich voice singing some of the old majestic hymns.  Among my favorites were "When the Roll is Called Up Yonder" and "Whispering Hope."  For some time, I've been looking for those songs on various music venues on line but have not been successful.  So, for Christmas this year, my mother cleaned out the old albums and allowed all of us to take those we wanted.

I was so happy to see that those two songs were on one album and snatched it right up.  There was another album by old Ernie that I  took along with a Pat Boone, The Plainsmen, and two compilation albums.  I didn't get to listen to them right away because the turntable wasn't in working order.  We don't often use it now.

I also didn't feel like subjecting John to the music.  His preferences run towards classic rock, like that of the 1970's not 1950's and 1960's gospel music.  (My coveted album is dated 1962.)  When I realized that John was going to be out of the house for several hours and that the turntable was working, yesterday seemed like the perfect time to see if my memories were accurate.

I first put on the album with my two favorites.  It was just like I remembered.  Funny thing, of all the songs on the album those two seemed to have the most skips.  Maybe they were Daddy's favorites too, and we listened to them the most.

What does this have to do with Petey?  At this point, he was resting calmly on his big brown pillow which happens to be directly in front of the sound system.  He continued to calmly rest there seemingly content to listen along with me.

Petey and I listened to and enjoyed both of the Tennessee Ernie Ford albums a couple of times.  Then I decided to give the Plainsmen a spin.  Let's just  say the first song did not suit my musical taste.  I was not at all offended and somewhat amused when Petey made a beeline for the back door.  I let him out while they twanged on, hoping it would get better.  It didn't.  I left the back door propped open because I didn't want to miss hearing him scratch while listening to my music.

I scanned the album cover for a favorite song.  I found one and moved the stylus over to that song.  My thinking was that maybe I'd enjoy them more listening to a song I already liked.  I was wrong.  It was worse. I took the Plainsmen off the turn table.  I looked at the compilation albums.  One had the Plainsmen on it, so I decided against both of them and gave Pat Boone a try.

Pat was good.  Once Petey heard that Pat was on, he came trip-tropping back in the house and took his place on the big brown pillow.  In fact, I think he preferred Pat.  He could have gone anywhere in the house.  He could have stayed outside, but he curled up on the pillow and listened along with me.

Petey's hearing isn't what it used to be.  But he knows good music when he hears it.  And he knows bad.  He's not going to waste any of his hearing on bad music.  I can't say as I blame him.