Myrna and Chalk had purchased vacant land on the Mullet River for Elmer Andrews to “farm”. Adjacent to the open garden were the backyards of many homes from a nearby street. One of the backyards belonged to Helen and Elmer Olson. Helen worked in the kitchen area of the City Club. She was rather robust in size and when she gave you a hug you would disappear into the “abyss” of womanhood. She was a nice lady.
This story is about brother Jack. He was 3 years younger than me and my guess is that he was 6-7 when we were invited to stop at the Olsons after attending to the garden. “Stopping by” meant lemonade and maybe a sandwich. As we walked from the Andrews garden into the Olsons backyard, there were several cages of rabbits. Yep, furry, pink eyed white little darlings with the long floppy ears. As Helen Olson greeted us, she showed us the rabbits and indicated that they loved to eat grass. We were welcome to put blades of grass through the openings in the wire cage and we could watch them munch. Her warning was that we should never, never, never put our fingers into the cage because rabbits have sharp teeth and it was dangerous.
Brother Jack allegedly took after my mother’s German side of the family, the Stillers. They weren’t good listeners. There was also a stubborn streak and “bullheadedness”. Jack stubborn? No?
You can see this coming. Everybody went into the house except Jack and I and we continued to feed the rabbits grass. Then Jack did what he was told not to do, he put his finger into one of the holes in the wire cage to touch one of the rabbits. The rabbit went for the finger and bit so hard his sharp teeth went through the end. That is not then end of the story. The rabbit wouldn’t let go and Jack was screaming at the top of his lungs. The Olsons came running out of the house and when they saw the rabbit had clamped on the finger, they opened the top of the cage, grabbed the rabbit behind it’s neck hard enough that he let go.
After lots of blood, tears and stitches at the doctors office, the finger got bandaged and obviously Jack survived.
Years later, Jack got a job feeding mink at a ranch outside of Plymouth. Instuctions were to never put your fingers into the cage. If you think rabbits grab on when they bite, mink are noted for being nasty little bastards. You guessed it, Jack figured out a way to get his fingers in the wrong spot while feeding and one locked onto his finger. Again he survived.
I think Bill Cosby got it right. “All children are brain damaged. What else would explain some of the things they do”. Brother Jack was always strong minded and did what he wanted. I always blamed the rabbit incident on bullheadedness. Maybe he was just being a kid.
So Grasshoppers, listen closely when someone gives you advice and don’t put your fingers where they do not belong.
Love,
Dad