Okay , if you're reading this you must have survived my first foray into the recollections of some of my early years . My wonderful sisters Michele and Linda reminded me of some things that the years had blurred in my mind . At Woodwardia we had a burro along with the other critters . Michele liked to make banana fritters , which are fried bananas then rolled in powdered suguar . Sounds odd but they were really good . We had a lot of poison oak which when we first moved in was a constant problem . Also a underground hand pump gas tank my Dad had installed because we were miles from a filling station and when you live out in the sticks its good to have gas on hand to fuel up your 1949 Buick or whatever other car we had at the time .
Linda reminded me of a pet chipmunk I had , although I never really forgot about it , I just needed a nudge . I caught this little guy with some rabbit food on the ground and a box propped up with a stick to which I had a long piece of string attached as I sat patiently for hours waiting for a taker . I lost several but finally got lucky and caught one ! Ran up the stairs on the side of the house and put him in the little cage in my bedroom .
The chipmunk was not happy with his new environment . He chattered and squeaked but eventually quieted down , as most prisoners do . Little did I know he was plotting his escape and revenge on the little boy with the butch haircut who smelled of Rocky Road candy bars and root beer .
One morning I opened his cage to feed him and he leapt out onto the hardwood floor and was scurriyng about until I cornered him . I was not prepared for happened next . He ran up the inside of my " official " Roy Rogers pajama bottoms . Yikes ! This little rodent was looking for nuts . MINE ! I clasped my hands around my upper thigh to prevent his travel north on his mission to castrate me me or at the very least have me singing tenor in the school play.
I yelled for my Mom and she rushed in and pulled down my pants and I got the beast back in its cage . Mom convinced me to release it back to where I caught it . I did and as the little guy was hopping back to freedom one of our cats snatched it up in its mouth and ran off into the woods with it .
So the moral of the story is , never have a chipmunk for a " pet " and if you see one and its looking at you in a funny kind of way ,....Run ! The little bastards will render you sexless in a heartbeat and you will forever have to live with the fact of being neutered by a small squirrell .
Thanks for reading this , if you don't like it let me know . If you don't like it I will send you a scorpion in a milk carton .... but that's another story for another time . Take care , Bob
