A Brother Named After A Cat? (October 30, 2014) -- "PeterCat"

This snapshot of my mother was taken beside the barn and tomato garden at the Carpenter family home at 551 High Street in Cumberland, Rhode Island in the mid-1940s. She is holding what is believed to be "PeterCat," the last of the cats that the family had and the first cat that my sister and the older of our two younger brothers ever met. Like the Carpenter family dog, Penny, PeterCat was a much anticipated part of any visit to our grandparents' home -- although PeterCat was always somewhat aloof as cats can be.

Now PeterCat looks nothing like my younger brother. And my brother never looked anything like PeterCat even when he was a baby with small, undeveloped facial features (well, excepting maybe my brother's ears, which were large enough to often look like an alert cat's ears).

In our Carpenter genealogy there are a couple of Peter Carpenters and a Peter Aldrich, but to be honest they were all collateral great grand uncles of varying degrees and unknown to my mother or her mother or any other living ancestors when my brother was born. 

When our younger brother was born, my sister and I awaited the gender and name like everyone else. I for one knew the naming would probably have something to do with family members since it was well known that I was named after my father's brother, John, and my mother's brother, David. And so it was natural that my sister and I would look for a basis for our brother's name when it was announced. 

When the name of this new arrival was announced it was learned that he was to be called "Peter Arnold Tew." The basis for the middle name Arnold was obvious. It was the first name of our father and his father. Our new brother's first name, however, was somewhat perplexing at first -- that is until we realized that there was a "Peter" in the family and it was, of course, the friendly (but rascally aloof) "PeterCat." 

And so it was that my sister and I decided between ourselves that our parents MUST have named our younger brother after the Carpenter family cat. Our parents denied this when we eventually revealed that we knew where Peter's name came from, but nonetheless we were not quite convinced and later used the story to successfully tease brother Peter.  

By the way, Peter (the brother, not the cat) was born on October 30th, so . . .

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRO!!

Peter (the brother) -- 1963.

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Scan of original snapshots in the family collection.

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Copyright 2014, John D. Tew

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The Story Of "Penny" -- The First Dog I Ever Knew (October 14, 2014)

Try to ignore the period hat that my maternal grandmother is wearing in this newly discovered photo and focus instead on Penny, the dog who is taking her leisure with Grandma Ruth. The exact date of this snapshot is unknown, but is probably from the 1940s.  Penny was the first dog my sister and I ever knew and that would have been in the early 1950s. What I never knew until this past weekend when perusing with my mother snapshots showing Penny, is the story of how my mother's family came to be Penny's family.

As my mother recalled this past weekend, sometime in the 1940s a dog suddenly appeared in the yard of my grandparents at 551 High Street in Cumberland, Rhode Island. The dog was injured and obviously limping on a bleeding paw that was cut by glass or some sharp object. She was taken in and her paw was tended to.  As she healed, it became apparent that she was pregnant and not too far from delivering her litter -- and so she was cared for until the event occurred.

My mother is not sure of precisely how many puppies were born, but the photographic evidence we received last weekend indicates there were at least three.

Ruth Carpenter with two puppies from the litter. [Notice the white muzzles and white up through the brows.] 

Ruth Carpenter holding Penny as a puppy. [Notice the dark muzzle.]

My mother with Penny as an older puppy.

The other puppies were given to other families and the mother was given into the care of the local ASPCA as my mother recalls.  Penny lived a long and happy life at 551 High Street and was always a very calm and friendly dog to my sister and to me. We always looked forward to visiting and seeing Penny!

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Scans from original snapshots in the family collection.

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Copyright 2014, John D. Tew

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Our First Family Dog, Cindy

Cindy is the center of attention (July 1957)

Last week I posted a photo of our second family dog, Missy.  Today I dug into the archives to try to come up with an equally good photo of our first family dog, Cindy -- but I was unable to do so and therefore reprise a photo posted here at The Prism in November 2013. This photograph from 1957 is apparently not only the earliest photograph of our first family dog, Cindy -- it might be the only one I have.  For as long as Cindy was with us, we must have other photos of her so this will become another project for 2014.

This photograph is obviously in bad shape, but it was taken in July 1957 when we were living in Holyoke, Massachusetts. My sister and I are in the center of the picture. The two older girls are neighbors whose names have been lost in time.

Cindy was a great dog and as gentle as could be.  We got her for Christmas one year and she was still a very young puppy. She was part of a litter from a dog owned by a colleague of my father's at Sears in Holyoke. The owners of Cindy's mother were leaving town on a trip for the holidays and so Cindy was delivered a week or so earlier than we probably should have gotten her. She lived with us her entire life from the time she was weaned if not slightly earlier. Our family was all she ever knew. 

Cindy went almost everywhere with us and hated to be left out of anything. If she had to be left behind for some reason (even if for the shortest period of time), we had a strict rule that when we arrived home the door would be opened so Cindy could come outside to greet us and absolutely before any family member went into the house; otherwise Cindy was so excited to see us that she wiggled all around us with her tail going like a fan . . . and in the process she invariably lost some bladder control so that our feet and shins and the immediate area got "baptized" in excited greetings.

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Photograph from the collection of the author. 

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Copyright 2014, John D. Tew

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Friday Fotos (March 20, 2014) -- Our Family Dog "Missy," the Rock & Roll Fan!

"Missy" (circa 1972)

When our family was living in Holyoke, Massachusetts, I was about 5 years old and just starting Kindergarten.  My sister was a year younger.  The older of my two younger brothers was just a baby and my youngest brother was not yet born.  And that was about when we got our first family dog, a collie-mix puppy that we named Cindy.

Cindy was a great dog who was as gentle as could be and got along just fine in a household of four children almost constantly on the move. Cindy was a well traveled dog and lived with us in Holyoke and Chicopee in Massachusetts, Salem Depot and Concord in New Hampshire, and finally in Cinnaminson, New Jersey.  She was almost 14 years old when she died and the family was devastated. 

It was when I was off to college, not too long after Cindy died, that my sister brought home a dog that she felt the family just had to adopt. My father still tells the story of the famous dog plebiscite and how he lost when even his visiting mother-in-law voted against him. Since I was away at college, I had no vote and remained blameless! The new family dog was named Missy by my sister and, sadly, she was only with us a few short years; but the truth is (as my father will admit) he was perhaps the most torn up member of the family when Missy got seriously ill and had to be put down by the vet because of the pain she was in. My father and I drove Missy on her final trip and I saw how upset he was.

Missy is pictured above in her younger days.  She is fully grown here though she still looks like a puppy. The one thing I will always remember about Missy was how she had to struggle through two particular nights each year -- New Year's Eve and the 4th of July.  She hated the sound of fireworks and firecrackers and the minute they started going off she began to tremble and whine softly. We finally stumbled upon an effective treatment when we discovered that she didn't mind rock & roll and could be almost completely calmed down if she could be coaxed to snuggle up behind the floor speakers of a stereo system in the house.  Listening to the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Beach Boys, and the Doors got poor Missy through the night!   

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Photograph by the author.

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Copyright 2014, John D. Tew

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Friday Fotos (November 8, 2013) -- Our Dog Cindy

Our first family pet, "Cindy" (center) with my sister Susan to the left and me to the right.
The two older girls are from our neighborhood on Taylor Street in Holyoke, Massachusetts.

Cindy was a collie mix that was given to us as a puppy when we lived in Holyoke, Massachusetts.  My sister is four and I am five in this old photograph.  Cindy was probably less than two years old.  

Cindy was a well-traveled dog who moved with us from Holyoke to Chicopee, Massachusetts and then to Salem Depot, NH to Concord, NH and finally to Cinnaminson, NJ where she died at about age 15 or 16.  She was an extremely gentle and friendly dog and a full member of the family.  Her only peculiarity was that when we came home from even a very brief absence she would get so excited to see us she would rush around wagging her tail and soaking in attention as she sprinkled the floor in her excitement -- so we always had to be reminded to open the door and try to greet her outside the house!

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Photograph in the collection of the author.

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Copyright 2013, John D. Tew

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