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Grandpa, Old Bob and one of the "kittens".
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When Grandpa told the story it sounded like music,
His voice had a soft rhythm to it that soothed
Put babies and grandchildren in a drowsy condition.
And comforted us in the repetition of sound and meaning. Old Bob
One time they had a cemetery workin’ down at our
house.
They cleaned the graves off and had a big dinner
Down at the cemetery
Not far from where we lived.
So late that evenin' some people had brought
A
little collie pup to the cemetery
And they went off and forgot it.
So the
little pup come down to our house.
It had a little short tail, and so I named it Bob.
So I’d feed old Bob some cornbread and milk,
Potatoes
and things to eat n’ finally old Bob got about half growed
And she got to
catchin’ my mama’s chickens.
So, I got me a switch and I give Old Bob a
whippin’.
Well, old Bob quit catchin’ chickens.
She decided it didn’t pay to catch chickens;
Cause I’d give her a
whippin’.
So, my dad; his cows use to get in the fields,
So we’d
hold old Bob up and point down the field and say,
“Go get those cows outta the
fields, Bob.” So, Old Bob
Would go a
runnin’ down across the pasture, barkin’.
So, directly those old cows would hear Old Bob barkin’
And they’d raise
their heads and see old Bob a runnin’ down across the pasture
And they’d say, “
Uh, oh, here comes old Bob! We’d better get back in the pasture.”
So, they’d make a run for the pasture.
Old
Bob would get down there and
She’d grab ‘em by the tail
And she’d bite their
tail and make ‘em wish
They’d never got in that corn patch.
One mornin’ real early; why, my daddy heard old Bob
A
barkin at somethin’ under the house.
So,
he got up and throwed some rocks under there
And he run a skunk out from under
the house.
So, Old Bob... (he said,
“Git that skunk, Bob!”)
And Old Bob grabbed that skunk and shook him to pieces
— and killed him!
Old skunk he turned
his scent aloose on Old Bob
And made Old Bob mad.
So, all day long every time she’d go by there
And see that skunk~
She’d grab that old skunk
And just shake him good.
One time, there was a gin tank close to our house
And
ducks ‘d fly and light in that tank.
So,
we heard someone shoot their gun, “Bang, bang, bang!”
After a while the hunters come up to the back
door.
And it was a rainin’ and cloudy. It
was wintertime.
They said, “Mr. King, we
shot some ducks down at the tank
And we was a wonderin’ if you could get your
dog to pull ‘em out for us.
So, we took
our dog down there and the tank had a bunch of cattails in it.
You couldn’t see the ducks, but the hunters
knew where they fell at,
So, they’d throw a rock in the cattails
And Old Bob’d
go a swimmin’ out through the cattails.
Then, she’d come a swimmin’ back with another duck in her mouth.
So, they shot another duck over in the
cattails and they throwed another rock over there
And Old Bob went a swimmin’
out there
And come back with another duck in her mouth.
They got three ducks out of that tank before
they finished.
Used to you’d hear Old Bob a barkin’ out in the
pasture and you’d go out there
And she’d have a snake treed. And we’d say, “Git ‘im Old Bob!”
Boy, you’d better get back out of the way,
Cause she’d shake that snake all over the place.
One time Old Bob found her some little pups.
I’d never saw any little pups an’ I saw ‘em
And called to my mama and said,
“Old Bob got some little kittens!”
One time I went up to my grandma’s
And I took Old Bob
and my little wagon.
So my grandma made
some harness out of twine string
To put on Old Bob. We hooked Old Bob to that wagon an’ Old Bob’d
pull the wagon.
So, I went home late
that evenin’. I got down close to the
barn
And I decided I’d like to ride in that wagon.
I crawled in that wagon and I told Old Bob to
‘get up!’.
So, Old Bob started a runnin’
off with the wagon.
She run around the
corner of the barn and hung the wheels
On the corner of the barn and turned the
wagon over
‘N spilt me out on the ground.
So, I decided I didn’t want to ride in that wagon ‘n I got out
I got a
hold of a rope and led Old Bob the rest of the ways to the house.
She pulled the wagon.
I didn’t try to ride in that wagon no more,
Cause I didn’t want to get dumped out in that ground.
© circa 1959 as told by Thomas Adolph King to his adoring grandchildren
Grandpa had other colorful Old Bob stories including one that involved fishing, a large group of boys and a lighted stick of dynamite. I'll save that one for another time though.
