Pets

Do you remember any pets you had in Rochdale?

Yes, I know that dogs were not allowed--even though some people had them, more about that later--but what about the cats, the fish, the hamsters, the turtles, the birds and other pets that we, and our friends, had in Rochdale?

I had one friend who had a few hamsters, but I seem to remember that they died soon after he had them.

Lots of people had fish, and they kept them either in small fish bowls are larger aquariums. The same with turtles.

Birds would sing to their hearts' content in many Rochdale apartments.

I had one friend who had a cat that I swear was as long as a football field ... well, not quite, but this cat was quite long, seemingly well over a foot or two in length from head to tail.

Every time we played a board game--and I distinctly remember this happening when we played with the Ouija board--the cat would walk across the board, messing up all the pieces or moving whatever was on the board.

The cat was very territorial, but my friend loved it, as it was part of his family.

Now for dogs.

As you know, dogs were all around Rochdale. People in the vicinity of Rochdale who owned homes had them, and certainly, there were hordes of dogs that wandered just outside, as well as inside the development, strays that our parents told us to stay away from.

But some people actually had dogs in the development, dogs that they cared for that became part of their families.

My family actually had a dog for a very short period of time.

It was late 1970 or early 1971, and my parents had just put a binder down on a house.

We knew we were moving, and what better way to live the "American Dream" than to own a dog in a house with a white picket fence?

My father thought this was a great idea, and he bought a dog, a very, very young newborn pup who was a mutt. He figured if we could raise the dog literally from scratch, it would be easier for the dog not only to adapt to us, but to the new surroundings after Rochdale.

The dog, who we called Melvin, was very, very young, and when he brought the dog home, my mother nearly blew her gasket, because she was as surprised as we were about the new member of our family.

To make a long story short, my sister and I loved that dog for the few days that we had it. We walked it outside by building 9, we slept with it, we fed it.

But the dog was not house trained, and my mother was not ready for dog "kisses" all over the place as well as liquid manifestations in the house, so my father had to give away the dog, and he did, to somene who went to the same service station he did across the street from Rochdale.

My sister and I cried and cried when Melvin left us, and my father cried too.

Years later, both my sister and I became dog owners, so the memory of little Melvin lived on, and still lives on, for decades.

Many of us had pets, and I am sure the subject will come up during the Reunion. Get your checks in, because the deadline of September 15 is fast approaching.

Don't "dog" it; send your payments in today!