Pammy and Tinker

I have vague memories of a little dog named Pammy. (Seems like there might have been two of them, and the other was named Tammy, but I'm not sure about that.) I think it was Uncle Ron's dog. I don't remember us having a little dog. We had a big boxer named Tinker when we lived in the house in Bangor..

PHOTO: Uncle Ron with Pammy. 

I'm assuming he's sitting on the front steps of our house in Bangor. He would have been 16 years old in this picture. 

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Unfortunately, I don't have any good pictures of our dog Tinker. The only picture I have is this one, which only shows him from the back.

PHOTO: Richard with Tinker

We bought Tinker from our neighbors across the street -- Ashel and Marian Miller. (Their house is in the background of the picture above where I am sitting on the car.) I think Ashel worked in the same company my dad did (Du-Wel), but I'm not sure. Ashel and Marian bred and raised boxers for a while. Tinker was a special part of our family back then. One time when Mom was in the grocery store, she left Ricky and Tinker on the sidewalk outside the store. She told Ricky to hold on to Tinker's leash so he wouldn't run away. Of course, Tinker never would run away -- he was actually there to keep Ricky from wandering off. When Ricky did start toddling toward the street, Tinker got ahold of his diaper and gently pulled him back onto the sidewalk. (You'd have to understand how life was in those little bitty towns in the 1950s. It was not as shocking as it sounds to the modern ear, to leave Ricky and Tinker on the sidewalk in front of the store.) (BTW, for those familiar with Bangor, it was Pete Waite's store. He was also a butcher, and you could also rent a meat locker at his store to keep your meat in after he had butchered it. Yes, just like on the Andy Griffith show -- if you remember the episode about Aunt Bee's freezer. "Call the man!")

Another story I remember about Tinker was that Ricky used to ride on him like a horse. One time Tinker took a peanut out of Ricky's hand and that made Rick mad, so he bit Tinker's ear. I don't remember the details, but in my mind I picture Rick being on Tinker's back and Tinker taking off like a shot through the house when Rick bit his ear. I don't know if he fell off or not... You'd have to hear Rick tell it, to get the full comedic value of the story.