'Dog Days' of summer, 'mad dogs' searches

Remember when you were a kid and August was known as "Dog Days." When August would arrive, my mama would say "Marilyn it's dog days, you be careful, when you see a dog acting strange (what did she mean strange) you high tail it away from him right fast, especially if he's foamin' at the mouth." Believe me, I sat up and took notice. "And whatever you do, don't let him bite you. If he has that dreaded disease, Rabies, and he bites you, you could catch it too, and not only do dogs get rabies, but cats, skunks and all sorts of critters." There were lots of dogs and cats in our neighborhood, so it kept me plenty busy, just lookin' for strange dogs and critters. It became my main past time. I wasn't going to let one of them sneak up on me from behind, I got a stiff neck, just from peering over my shoulder. One particular summer it was really bad, and several dogs were spotted foamin' at the mouth.

I was plum tuckered out from checkin' for "mad dogs."

Another summer I developed whooping cough. One day, everything was just dandy. It was two months before school started, and adventures were just waitin' to happen. Well, something happened all right, but not the way I had anticipated. I woke up one morning, just coughing my head off. Right away, Mama got suspicious and called Dr. Wilkening, that was back when Doctors made house calls. He came out in the afternoon, hadn't been there more than five minutes when he declared I had whooping cough. He nailed a big sign on our house that said Quarantine, whooping cough and the date on it, and as far as I was concerned, it was a death sentence.

As soon as they left, Mama took my hand and walked me around our yard and said "for the next two months, you will not go beyond our yard, do I make myself clear? Whooping cough is very "catching" and you can't leave the house or yard and no one can come and visit.

Not only could no one come in our yard or house, no one in my family wanted to come near me either. As far as they were concerned, I was poison. I think I drove everyone crazy, I was so bored. I played "jacks" by myself, "jump rope" by myself, and paper dolls with "cut-outs" from the Sear Roebuck Catalog.

My paper doll family had more clothes, toys and rooms full of furniture than Shirley Temple. By the end of two months there wasn't much left of the Sears catalog. Sometimes I coughed so hard I thought for sure I would cough my brains out. When I would really get bored, Mama would get a little wash pan, fill it with soap and water and I could wash my Betsy Wetsy doll clothes. I could spend quite a long time doing this when I was finished, Mama would take me outside, give me some clothes pins and hold me up to the line so I could hang them up. When they were dry, she again would hold me up so I could take them down.

One day, I walked to the end of our yard and then checked to see where Mama was, she was in the kitchen cookin' supper, so I decided I would step over the line to see what would happen and in one second, I was in No Man's Land. I stood there just lookin' around, when all of a sudden the booming voice of Mama bellered out the window. She said "Marilyn Joan", when she called me Marilyn Joan I was in big trouble, "You get back in this yard right this minute." I fairly flew across the line, all the time wondering where in tarnation had she come from, she must have eyes in the back of her head. She came running outside and said "If I catch you doing that one more time, you will be sorry, and I don't mean maybe."

Well, it took me a couple of days to get up enough courage to try it again. I checked to see where Mama was, and I couldn't find her, so thought I was safe. I jumped across the line and just like lightening, Mama hollered out the window, "Marilyn Joan, what did I tell you, you get in this house this instant." I could see I had gone too far this time. I fairly ran into the house and there stood Mama with a switch from our cherry tree, with the leaves on it. She told me to turn around, and she switched my legs. At the time, that switch looked as big as a baseball bat, but as I look back on it, it really was just a small twig. I hollered like I had been hit by a train; as quick as it began, it stopped. Mama said "Now have you learned your lesson, or do you want another spankin'?"

I thought to myself, yeah, sure Mama, give me another one, but I meekly said "Yes Mama, I have learned my lesson." I had lost that battle, and through the years, there were many more battles, and yes, I lost every one of them. The days drug by so slowly, I decided to mark each day off on the calendar, like during December when I was waitin' for Christmas. Finally the day arrived when the man from the Health Department came out and took the quarantine sign down. By now it was time for school to start and I could hardly wait; I would finally see all of my friends and life was good.