Devil Dogs, Root Beer and Memories of the Training School

Once again, reading a  post on the Mighty brought back a very old memory. The post, a good but sad read, written by Erik Weiner stayed with me for days (read the article here), as it reminded me of my step uncle’s brother, whom I met only once when I was young.

I am guessing that I was about 9 or 10 years old. One day, out of the blue my parents told my brother and I that we would be going out with our aunt and uncle. We had been sent to their house before for babysitting purposes but never for an “outing”.

They came to pick us up and we were told that we were going to take my uncle’s brother out to lunch. I knew my uncle had a sister. She lived right across the street from him and she and her family were there for every holiday. We were around her often enough to also call her Aunt and her husband, Uncle. Never had I heard any mention of a brother.

We pulled up to a very large building, really rows of buildings. My uncle went inside, while we waited in the car with my aunt. She told us that we could not go in because it wasn’t safe for us to be inside. I got a bit worried at that point.

I was and still am a terrible judge of age, but I am guessing that my aunt and uncle were somewhere in their 40’s. Eventually my uncle came out arm-in-arm with a man who seemed to be about the same age. They put him into the car, in the front seat between them. He was very excited to see us, it seemed, very excited – I was still a little bit afraid.

His name was Freddy. I don’t remember hearing him speak, I don’t think that he could. There were a lot of grunts and noises. He seemed so happy to be out and so happy with the Devil Dogs, his brother brought for him. I remember devil dog remnants being everywhere. My uncle was really good with him, which led me to believe that even though I had never heard mention of him and he was really not spoken about (that I knew of), this visit was not random. He was so good with him and prepared so for everything that I had to believe these visits were quite regular.

My aunt explained that Freddy was mentally challenged – of course back then they used different words, and could not take care of himself. This was why he lived at the “school”.

It did not take me long for my fear to subside and to warm up to him. I’m sure, now feeling comfortable and with my interest piqued, I asked far too many questions. I wanted to know what happened, how he got that way, why he didn’t know how to eat, why he couldn’t or didn’t talk. I don’t remember the exact answer I got to those questions, quite possibly because no answer they could give me would have been good enough of an explanation in my mind. It was probably that he was born that way.  This was confusing to me. I wanted to know if he lived there all of his life, why I never heard about him, why he didn’t come to family holidays, but was afraid to ask. I think this may have been my first experience with anyone with special needs.

We took Freddy for a drive and then stopped at A&W Root Beer for lunch. He really enjoyed that. A&W was close to the “school” where he lived so after lunch we drove back to bring him home.

I was glad that I has the opportunity to meet him. I really liked him. I am sorry to say that this was the first and last time that I ever saw him and I never heard him mentioned again. I didn’t feel comfortable asking about him but I always think of him when I see a devil dog or see an A&W Root Beer, or read an article like the one mentioned above and every time the “school” is mentioned. This was not residential housing or a group home, it was at the time, an institution, probably one of the few options available at the time. I believe it is still in operation today, whether or not it is still considered an institution, I do not know.

Now that  I am an adult, I understand that this is the way things were handled back then. This is where people like Freddy went to live. I also understand, after working in a convalescent home many years ago and from his reaction to us, that it probably wasn’t dangerous in the true sense of the word for us/children to have gone inside. It was probably more like the seniors at the convalescent home, who would get so excited, overly excited and sometimes frighteningly excited to see young children. I could be wrong about this, I have never been inside but that is the way I explained it to myself.

I am happy that I got over my fear quickly enough to enjoy the day with him.  I am sorry that times were as they were and parents were told that this was the only option for Freddy and people like him. I don’t know if Freddy ever lived at home, so I won’t say that this was the case with him, but it was the case with many children back in the day.

I can say that Freddy did seem to be very happy and I developed a new appreciation for my uncle after seeing how kind and loving he was with him. I also imagine that Freddy might be the reason that my uncle always remembered DC on his birthday and holidays.

I can also say with certainty that I will never forget Freddy.

More from the Funny Pages

Posted by TakingItAStepAtATime

Once again I am heading back to an old website my friends and I used to run a good long while back. I have used some of the blurbs and stories from that page in two other posts: All the….. small things and We sure do have some stories, don’t we? The first was one of my most popular posts in the month of April, the second was relatively popular as well, so I decided to use the remaining stories/funnies in one more post.

“Some of the following blurbs are mine (DC was very young at the time) and some are from friends of mine  but all of them show us that there is always humor to be found. We might at times learn something valuable – but most of the time it is just plain funny.”

Random Themes

A “Serious” Combination
My girls hate vegetables. Being a good “mother” I insist that they have to have two vegetables during dinner.
Tonight my younger daughter was sitting there pondering her meal and playing with the vegetables she is supposed to be eating. She quietly put a couple kernels of corn on her fork then added some peas along with them.
She held the fork up to me and asked…..
“WOULD YOU LIKE SOME PORN?”
(Peas + Corn = PORN)!!!
Several years from now, I will have to explain what my husband and I were laughing so hysterically about!

My son, who was non-verbal until he was seven, still uses his sign language often. He gave his sign language teacher and one of my friends an ornament of the “I LOVE YOU” sign as a Christmas gift. I – assuming that the “I love you” sign was pretty much universal, was surprised when my friend thanked him for the “Rock On!” ornament!

One day I had to take my son for what would be a very long doctor appointment. The parking area was one where you paid the parking attendant in the booth near the entrance to the building, not in the lot itself.
It was pouring rain when we went in but we were in the office for so long, that the rain stopped by the time we came out.
I was standing at the parking attendant’s booth counting change to pay for our parking before we walked to the car. As I was counting my son began to yell, “Hurry Up, Mom!” – I noticed the attendant laughing and I turned to see my son standing directly under a drainpipe – water pouring directly down on his head!
He thought it was still raining!
I said “*Bob, move over” – confused, he moved, put his hands out to check for rain and said “Oh”.

Children hear and remember everything (especially when you think they are not listening)

When a teacher turns to her assistant and says “It’s so hot in here, I’m dying.” you can guarantee that at least one student will go home in tears to tell his/her parents that Mrs. Blank is dying. It was time for a Parent-Teacher meeting anyway.

When his “Step Dad” tells him jokingly “P.U. you stink! Time to take a bath”, please understand that you will get a note home from school the following day informing you that your son was telling everyone he encountered “P.U. – You Stink!”

You can NEVER anticipate what will come out of their mouths!
While in line at a crowded grocery store, your child decides to recite a line from a favorite movie (something he does on a regular basis) – “Please don’t send me back! I like it here!” (Disney’s Summer Magic)

It is never too crowded a place to announce anything regarding bodily functions:
While shopping at the Disney Store, your 12 year is asked by his “Step Dad” if he would be able to wait a few minutes to go find a restroom. He proceeds to yell at the top of his lungs “POOP!” ……………I guess that would be a “no”.

My son wrote “baby” on his Christmas list to Santa.
Thinking he wanted another baby doll this year, I asked what kind he wanted
“BABY FOR MOM”
(I let that go).
Later I noticed he added “GIRL” to his list.

My Daughter came home today and told me that she had to do a writing prompt – the subject: What do you dislike?
Her opening sentence (a grabber for sure) was:
“Do you get hit everyday? I do, and I don’t like it.”
I could just envision the school calling DCF immediately!
All I could mutter was,…..OH MY GOD!………………….
Then she proceeded to tell me that she wrote about her Special Needs brother’s habit of hitting because he thinks it is funny, which was partially her fault because she would let him do it to make him laugh. She understands that he can not help it and she still loves him very much.

That, right there is the best way to end any post

We sure do have some stories, don’t we?

Posted by TakingItAStepAtATime

Last month I wrote a post All the….small things, based on a conversation with a friend of mine that included snippets from an old website we used to run. It turned out to be my most popular post in April.  As I was trying to get a few posts written and scheduled ahead of time to run while we were away on vacation and for the very busy week I expected after we arrived home, I decided to go back to the old website and post a few more snippets on an array of different subjects…. but mostly just plain funny stories.

“Some of the following blurbs are mine (DC was very young at the time) and some are from friends of mine”  but all of them show us that yes, we are all crawling in the dark at times – we certainly were back then and really still are to some extent – but there is always humor to be found. We might at times learn something valuable – but most of the time it is just plain funny.
More on Clothing Issues:

You don’t wear your clothes in the pool. If Mom says it’s okay to go in because we forgot the bathing suit (meaning it is okay to go in with your shorts on) you take off all of your clothes (in front of more than 20 people) faster than she can get up to stop you – and go in naked.

 You don’t wear your shoes in the water, so water shoes are out of the question.

You don’t go outside with your Pajama’s on, not even just to step out on to the porch to hold the door open for someone as they are pleading with you to hold the door while carrying the largest poinsettia plant ever grown. – Forget it if there happens to be a fire!

 Literally Speaking:

 My 6 year old plays on a T-ball league for children with special needs. The Coach, in his infinite wisdom, coaching a bunch of 6 year olds who have probably never played baseball before – continued to yell “Choke Up”. My son proceeded to clear his throat each time the Coach gave this direction!

A Kindergartner whose family was moving out of the school district mid-year, wrote a good-bye letter to her teacher. She wanted to tell her how much she will miss her. They had been working very hard on sounding out words in class so she sounded out her letter to her favorite teacher, Mrs. Sheat. She began with: 
“Deer Mrs SH#T”(use your imagination)………

 My son and I were in the kitchen picking out one of those little boxes of cereal to take on a long car ride.  When we came across “Honey Smacks”, he wondered out loud, “Why don’t they call those butt smacks – those hiney smacks…..?”  Needless to say I could not speak – I was convulsed with laughter – I had never realized that he thought the word “Honey” was “Hiney” all this time.  But I could see how he came to that conclusion after examining the picture of the cereal on the box!

 Random Funnies:

While driving to church at Christmas time, my daughter decided it was not fair that Christmas was only one day while Hanukah was eight full days.
“Mom, why can’t we be Jewish?”.
My second daughter piped in immediately “We can’t be Jewish! We’re decaffeinated!”

My son likes to help. At times he can become overly helpful……..like the time he removed all the bamboo stakes from the tomato plants (all twenty of them,) and put the stakes back in the shed where they belong, vines and all.
or…. the time he decided to “weed” the vegetable bed and pulled everything out – weeds, veggies, everything green –  then proceeded to dispose of them in the swimming pool…clumps of dirt and all.
He will also dismantle any rock wall I construct and move the rocks to their original pile in back of the shed.

Recently while grocery shopping I asked my son, to get me some orange juice. Feeling so proud that I would ask him – off he went (with his older brother just a few short steps behind him). As his brother watched in amazement, my youngest son climbed up into the cooler and stretched his arm out so far as if he was searching for something. When my oldest son came to his aid he asked “what are you doing in the cooler with your hand stuck in there?” His reply was “I’m trying to reach Florida”  – TV Strikes Again….

My son was dying to be in the Christmas play at our church. He got the part of one of the Three Kings.
Apparently he did not understand that he had to stand on the stage in front of the whole church when he took the part, until the night they were getting ready to perform. He tried to beg out at the last minute, but his father insisted that he perform.
My son searched for the largest crown he could find. When he took the stage, he stood there with the crown down over his face to his neck, throughout the entire play.

Many thanks to all of my friends that contributed so many years ago.