Skip to main content

Aardvarks on steroids

"How much can I git for a dolla?" Man, if I had a dime for every time I heard that one! I was just thinking about the summer I spent with Uncle Travis. He was a strange man, physically and socially. However, I had six weeks I'll never forget. Uncle Travis was born with one leg six inches shorter than the other. Now that was no big deal in most cases, but when he got excited or angry he tended to go in circles. He was an ice cream truck driver. Travis' Treats - Frozen confections you love to eat! That was his slogan right there on the side of his truck. Now Uncle Travis was not a fancy man, nor was he wealthy. He blew all his money on the cock fights every Saturday night - but that is another story. Travis did not stand on a lot of ceremony. His ice cream truck was basically a pickup truck with a plywood building on the back. He never put in refrigeration, so he used a lot of ice and dry ice to keep things frozen. All the kids knew Uncle Travis would start going in circles if they made him mad. So, being kids they would do their best to infuriate him every chance they would get. Almost every day, some kid would be elected by the others to not pay for his ice cream. That was sure to get Travis riled up. He would start sputtering and wobbling on that longer leg and the fun would begin. The kid would run, and Uncle Travis would head after him. If the kid timed it right and waited until he was seeing red, Uncle Travis would have trouble even getting out of the truck. Soon he would be spinning like a top on that short leg with us all splitting our sides watching. Good times. Now Uncle Travis did help me with one of my first pets. After the loss of Steve, the monkey, to the freak skiing accident; I had wanted another pet. (for the Steve saga, see here - http://justsomeposts.blogspot.com/2008/04/even-more-memories.html) Uncle Travis helped me pick out one. We went to the flea market and got a Brazilian hedgehog. At least that is what the guy at the flea market said. I always thought it was just a hairy rat. I called him Grover. Grover was pretty cool, whether he was a real Brazilian hedgehog or not. I kept him for the rest of the summer. He was my going away meal. Grover roasted up real good. I will leave you with this thought - Do concert musicians get pianist envy?
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Who's got gas?

Here is another thing that is bothering me - I am tired of people whining about gas prices. Gas was never free!! When people whine about "$40 to fill my tank" they forget that even at $2 a gallon it was $25 or so to fill it!! Here are some numbers: The average car in the U.S. is driven about 12,000 miles a year. If you get 20 MPG (hey if you are driving a Hummer, getting 10, I don't want to hear it!) That is 600 gallons of gas a year. Most people would be estatic if gas was at $2 a gallon again -SO, that is about $600 a year (for the extra $1 a gallon) or $11.54 a week. Now I know there are a LOT of folks that were struggling to pay the $2, but the average person I know was not. Here is another way to look at it. How many Starbuck's coffees or lattes have you had lately at $$37.33 a gallon? ($3.50 for a 12 oz one) How about a beer on an airplane at $53.33 a gallon? ($5 per) Then there is bottled water at $10.66 a gallon. ($1 a 12oz bottle -and it can be MUCH higher
1 comment
Read more

Our Guv'ment

Section 8 - Powers of Congress The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises , to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; To borrow money on the credit of the United States; To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes; To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States; To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures; To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States; To establish Post Offices and Post Roads ; To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings a
2 comments
Read more

Being Thankful

Here on the eve of Thanksgiving I thought it would be appropriate to be thankful. However there are many, many reasons to be thankful. We are thankful that we live in a country where fortunes can be made by lawsuits over the temperature of a beverage. We are thankful that we have cameras to record every movement of the latest pop tart exiting a limo. We are thankful that we have more lawyers than any other nation on earth - over one million. (I just read that 70% of the lawyers in the world are in the U.S.) We are thankful that we are innocent until proven guilty - unless the charges are of a nature as to be offensive to someone. We are thankful that we have hundreds of channels of television, still with nothing on worth watching most times. Along that theme, we are thankful to be able to watch exiting "sports" like spelling bees and baccarat. We are thankful to have devoted public servants and elected officials that look upon their job as a way to line their pockets. We ar
1 comment
Read more