A Child's Pet

[kamera]

This is a November 1946 picture of me, when I was 4 years old, and my 'pet' toikee as I called it. At least to me it was supposed to be a pet after having won it in a raffle at the Firemans Jubilee.

I had to keep it in the basement, and everytime I would take it upstairs, I got yelled at...gosh golly!

Then one day my dad got on his hat and coat, went to the basement and came up carrying my toikee. Told me it was close to Thanksgiving and the toikee had to go now.

After he left my mother explained things to me and I cried and cried. Told her I only would eat a baloney sandwich on Thanksgiving.

And that is what she made me. She would tell me later that I ate part of the sandwich and then had...you guessed...toikee!!!



The pic was taken by my dad and using his Kodak Jiffy.

Ron Head
Kalamazoo, MI

[Just Plain Curt]

Hi Ron,
When I was little we lived on a small farm with pigs, chickens and geese. I have many fond memories of walking around with an arm around each goose's neck like old chums. They were so protective of us kids that even my mom didn't dare come round when the geese were there. Thankfully I don't remember what ever bacame of them but I gather they went the way of your pet Toikee.

[Randy]

Most of my siblings and me are alergic to turkey. The part that makes people tired after eating it makes me deathly ill.

[heath]

When I was little my mother babysat some kids whos mother bought a small lamb. It was still being bottle fed so my mother had to look after it too when she was looking after the kids. Close to Christmas the lamb was taken to the country and when my mothers friend came home she had all this meat with her. We all ate roast lamb on Christmas day, except my mother.

Heath

[kiev4a]

Growing up on a farm in the early 1950s we learned early on to deal with what happened to farm animals -- it was part of life. I had several pet steers but understood that the day would come when they would be in the freezer. If we were having chicken for Sunday dinner, mom went out to the chicken house, grabbed a Rhode Island Red and lopped off its head with an ax.

I find, however, that the older i get, the more sensitive I become to animals. Recently, we had to put down a 14-year-old family cat and it was almost more than I could bear. I gave up hunting nearly 20-years ago --not because I have anything against hunting but because unless I'm going to eat it, I'm not going to kill it. Don't have much use for hunting simply for "sport" or for trophies. There is a "herd" of quail that live in our subdivision and I get hours of pleasure just watching them as they go about their daily routine.
A flock of big gray geese were the bain of my existence when I was seven or eight. They were mean, hissing creatures that nipped us and beat us with their wings if we got too close. Scared me to death!

Shot below is of Ferdie--a Jersey steet would would allow me to ride on his head, between his horns. Ansco Super Memar -- Tri-X Film.

[kamera]

Wayne,

I can just visualize you on that steer.

For several years we had a 'gentlepersons' farm...10 acres and raised all our veggies, pork and beef.

My wife is such an animal lover that when we got our first two piglets she named them Porky and Petunia and put drapes up at the window in their "apartment" as she called it. It was a little difficult as we took them out behind the barn to 'sacrifice' them for our stomachs, but we had repeatedly told ourselves that day would come.

When we acquired our first lil' beef machine at 70 pounds we used to wrestle with him. Bad practice, because when he reached 500 pounds he still wanted to play...would come charging across the pasture at us. I finally made a quirt and we would have to slap it across his nose as he got close to us.

Ron Head
Kalamazoo, MI