“Pile into the car kids, we’re goin’ to Squirty’s, said Dad. Bill and I climbed into the back seat and waited for Mom and Dad. It was a Sunday afternoon and Uncle Don would probably be listening to his favorite classical music. It may seem a bit odd because few people do that; but it seemed to be one of the joys of his life. When we arrived we were greeted by the sound of music but Uncle Don didn’t let it interfere with a nice visit. This was just one of many times we made such a trip and I was always impressed by the music. If I should ask him about it, I wonder what he would say.

“Well, Rebecca, I grew up in a small town. Most of the music I heard was from the radio – country music, Grand Ole Opry and the like. I was a young teen-ager when I went to the Mountain Laurel Festival pageant where a symphony orchestra played. I listened and fell in love with the orchestra and its music. After that I went to a concert every time I got a chance. When I could afford it I got a hi-fi music system and LPs that I loved to listen to. Quirky? Maybe, but what would you say to this? When your Aunt Mary was a five-foot-nine grown woman with four kids her siblings still called her Squirty. Now that’s quirky.”

I remember that Aunt Mary’s family had exotic pets in their house, but no common pets like dogs or cats. We had Homer the dog and I guess I didn’t understand why they didn’t have a dog. As I recall Uncle Don didn’t like cats at all.

“OK, Rebecca, you’re right; I didn’t like cats. In my upbringing we never let animals live in the house with us. Their place was outdoors. When I was but a wee boy we had a cat that was let inside sometimes, but was always put out at night. One night we forgot to put him out. The next morning I went to put on my shoe and it was wet. Why? The cat peed in it. Also, after that I saw cats stalking fledging birds just for the sport of it. I enjoyed having birds in my back yard, and I put feed out for them. I couldn’t have cats sneaking around my bird feeders. I must admit that I once suggested to the little boy next door that he put his kitten in a bag with a rock and drop it in a pond. I really didn’t mean it. It was much later that I learned that cats could live indoors in harmony with people. That way the birds were relatively safe. I even began to like cats and even had some of my own, thanks to my latter wives. Correction: A person does not own a cat; it’s the other way around.

“When my kids were older one or more of them got the bright idea that I needed a dog and presented me with a pup which I was obliged to keep in the house. He was a cute little fellow, but I couldn’t break him of his chewing habit. I named him Amos. Later on I decided that Amos should be his middle name and his first should be Igner. The naming probably came about after he nearly drowned himself trying to grab a stream of water pouring from a hose I was using. Fortunately we found a young boy who longed for a dog and whose parents agreed to his longing. Nobody mentioned Amos’s first name. Amos had a new home. Evidently it was a much better home. The boy had his own room with twin beds, one of which Igner, I mean Amos, inherited. Later on I owned a dog that I really liked named Dinah.

"Perhaps you’ll consider it quirky that my kids had odd little pets; I do. I never knew exactly how they became part of the family. There was a succession of parakeets, a hamster or more, goldfish, numerous turtles, and maybe tadpoles in the bathtub and it’s hard to remember what else. Oh yes, I must mention the garter snake that somebody brought home from the park. I had to make a cage for it. It was a girl snake as we found out when in late summer we spied a dozen babies in the cage. Quirky? The kids even got their grandma in on their quirkiness by getting her a finch she called Harry, and a cage to keep him in.”

Returning home after a visit to aunt Mary’s, I noticed a few things that might look odd to her: pieces of wrecked automobiles in the yard, soup beans and raw onions for supper, and a few other things that I choose not to mention. I guess everybody has things that seem odd to other folks.