Letter 1953/01/23 – Devil Dog
Friday 1/23/53, 12 noon
My darling Marie,
How’s my darling today? The darnedest thing happened to me last night. After I wrote you a letter I went to bed. Then about 2:30 in the morning I heard my dog barking outside. I remember letting him out but not letting him in. So I fell out of bed and put something on, mainly because I don’t wear anything to bed and went down stairs to let
him in. Here’s where the strange stuff starts. Usually when he comes home late he comes in real slow, because he knows he’s in trouble. I usually say to him when he comes in late, “When in the hell are you going to stop whoring around all hours of the night?”
But I opened the door and he came through like a streak of lightning. He had his tail between his legs and his ears were flat on his head. I just stood there in stupefied silence. He made a complete circuit around the house, through the kitchen, dining room, living room and hallway six times, at top speed. He knocked over three chairs and the coffee table. I was completely stunned. Finally I opened the basement door and he ran right into it, fell down, took off through my legs and ran into the opposite wall, and then took off down the basement stairs. He missed the first three and tumbled all the way down the stairs. Then he took off through the basement. It was all happening so fast that I didn’t know what was happening. I yelled at him and he ran into the other room and I could hear him panting in his bed. I ran down stairs and looked at him and he looked completely dazed. His eyes were completely glazed.
I started to say what the hell’s wrong with you and the damn thing sprang at me. One thing I can always take care off is dogs so I laid him flat on his back with the side of my hand. That was the first time in all the years I had the dog that he ever sprang at me. I knew he wasn’t kidding either. I knocked him out completely. I picked him up and laid him in his bed and started putting cold compresses on his head and wiping him off. He came to and just laid there looking at me. I went back to bed.
You should see him this morning. I went down there real early and he just lays there in his bed. You never saw such a sorry sight in your life. He’s sorry, you can see it in his eyes. He came crawling over to me on his belly and laid his head on my shoe. First he lays his head there, then he licks my shoe, then he crawls between my legs whimpering his head off. All I did was put my hand on his head and all was forgiven. He crawled all over me.
I still don’t know what was wrong with him. It looked like the devil himself was after him. What a thing to wake up to at night. But the more I think of it, it was the funniest thing you ever saw. His running into the wall etc. Never a dull moment.
I just got your letter in that nice stationary. It’s very pretty. Don’t worry about anything my darling. Everything will work out all right. I know what I want and I’ll get it. I love you my little nurseeeee. I love you very much.
All my love my darling
Tom
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I’ve been feeling a little sad this week because I know this month is going fast and December 5th will be here soon. Dad would have been 78, which to me is young, because I’m 56 and at that age, 89 is old to me:) Plus he was always a kid at heart with his dry sense of humor and teasing. I miss him SO MUCH! I miss not being able to talk to him, his straight forward wisdom and his hugs, because I could sure use a BIG DAD HUG right now. Thanks Tim for constantly giving us little gifts of Dad just when we need them. The letters just show how much love he had in his heart and how blessed we were to have him love us. Love you Dad! You many need some kleenex because you’ll be smiling and tearing up at the same time, but they are happy love tears!