![]() Mamma checked around to see if anyone was missing a dog. Mamma said the other Old Shep left Uncle James unexpectedly, too, sometime just before he went off to college. ![]() It would make him at least 350 dog-years- old. Sometimes Mamma said it felt like Old Shep really was the same dog. He looked exactly like the Old Shep Uncle James had when he and Mamma were children. Nobody was sure how he got through the front gate, but there he was sitting at the door looking at them as if he expected to be invited in. A little over two years before, right after their daddy left for the war, the black and white sheep dog appeared on their porch. “We’ll find somebody to look after him while we’re gone,” Mamma reassured her. “What will Old Shep do if you go away to take care of Daddy and we go to Uncle James?” Grace cried in alarm. And you never know what adventures are waiting for you.” You never know whom you you’ll meet on the Santa Fe Chief-movie stars, singers, politicians, famous baseball players-they all love the Chief, at least that’s what your Uncle James says. “Once you’re on board, you won’t even have to change trains. “We’re lucky that Uncle James works for the railroad and could get tickets for the Chief,” Mamma had told them, trying to sound cheerful. That is how J.D., Mary Carol, Robert, and Grace Harrison happened to be at Union Station in Kansas City one night restlessly waiting for the Santa Fe Chief to Los Angeles. Further details will be forwarded to you as they become available.” Army Air Force pilot John David Harrison was seriously wounded on April 7, 1944. That’s the most important thing.”Īt last she read it to them, “The Secretary of War regrets to inform you that U.S. They waited tensely as she read it to herself, hands trembling ever so slightly. Slowly, deliberately, Mamma opened the yellow envelope. ![]() They were all too afraid of what the telegram was going to say. It was a gift from her brother, their Uncle James. He fetched the long, silver letter opener. Old Shep sat on the floor next to her as if he fully understood the gravity of the situation. “J.D., would you kindly bring me the letter opener? It’s on my desk.” She sat down on the piano bench, facing them. She asked everybody to sit down in the living room. Mamma took the telegram, calmly thanked the messenger, and gave him a coin. John David Harrison,” the messenger said. ![]() raced downstairs after him, calling to the others. The messenger boy opened the gate and walked up the path to their front porch.Ī knock on the door sent Old Shep flying down the stairs. The bicyclist stopped in the street below his window. Now that the United States had entered World War II, a telegram almost certainly meant somebody had been wounded, was missing in action or, worse yet, had been killed. The only people he knew who got telegrams got them from the Army. “A telegraph messenger boy, bad news for somebody,” J.D. With his arm around Old Shep, he watched a drizzling rain destroy all hope of baseball practice. J.D., the oldest, was the first to know about the telegram because he happened to be looking out his bedroom window. Actually, they were part of something that started long before then, before they were born. It all started with a telegram on a rainy Saturday morning in April.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |