It's The Simple Things

[Joanne ~ Spud*]

It's the simple things as to why I like my dog.  So many little things that make my day better.

I've always HATED basements. Thank goodness we have one, but I don't like to go down there alone.

My mean sister ( the middle child) used to tell me that Billy Goat Gruff lived under the stairs and was going to grab my ankles as I went down the steps. I suppose I have a hang up because of this. Of course, blame it on her.

Spud, on command, "I'm going to the basement" or " Time to go downstairs" will get all excited, grab a toy, and go downstairs with me.  Thanks Spud.  After 50 years, I can finally smile when I go down the steps

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Awwww, Spud is such a good boy!  My mean sister terrorized me too.  I do not watch any scary movies or read scary books and clowns... NO way.

[Sheila & Finnley]

Oh dear, as I read some of these I realise that I was the evil big sister !! Ha ha ha

Helped my sister to jump off our patio roof (it was about 12 ft high) with an umbrella to be like Mary Poppins...... epic fail !

I also "helped" to lock he inside that same patio one day, so we could say she ran away ! Another FAIL !

Bahahahahah I'm evil I tell you ! :)

[Marnie, Stanlee's Mom]

I was the mean sister, too, but it came back to bite me in the ar$e.....I am terrified of basements.  We don't have them here in Florida but as a little girl in Pennsylvania, our basement was horrible!  We had that dark, scary space behind the stairs, a furnace room (you know, where the Mole People live) a coal room (that's where the monster that ate the Mole people for breakfast lived) and most frightening, a fruit cellar (too scary for even the monsters!)  I could find the phobia listing fear of basements but when I DID find a list, I was horrified to see how many applied to me.  http://phobialist.com/reverse.html

 

Mary Poppins.....LOL  We had a laundry chute from the second floor down to the basement and we (my sister and my three cousins) told my brother how much fun it would be to slide down the chute.  We didn't pad the bottom so I guess it's a good thing he got stuck between the first and second floors. 

[Colleen, Jake & Baxter]

Marnie, I just saw what you wrote about the furnace room.....LOL....so I am not the only one that grew up with one.  We also had a fruit cellar and I hated going down to that too because of how dark and scary it was to me.

[Sheila & Finnley]

Funny about the laundry chute Marnie ! I once locked a neighbor boy inside a hay chute at a neighbor's farm ! He was climbing down it, and I closed the bottom on him. Then I ran like a crazy kid and got the top, and closed that before he could get back up ! He was fine. It was boys picking on the girls that day. The other kids let him out !

 I always wanted to try sliding in a laundry chute ! Of couse with a padded bottom ! :)

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Oooohhhh you bully, Sheila!!!!  It is all relative though.  My dh fed his sister perfume to 'freshen her breath,' pushed her into the bathroom wall heater, got her to swallow a straight pin - and he was a good big brother who also protected her from other bullies.

[Sheila & Finnley]

Sheesh Nancy, I wasn't quite as evil creative as your DH. Perfume.... a straight pin ???

Yikes for sure. :)

[Doris, Knox & Flash]

Oh, the things big sisters can do to torture their  little sisters!  Mine would put her hand behind her back and chase me all over the house.  Sometimes she would have a granddaddy-long-legs and sometimes she would have nothing.  it didn't matter -- I would scream and run every time!

I'm so glad you have Spud to protect you, J!

[Kyoko]

Spud is your knight.... I hate the basement as well. My late chow used to love it there, because it is cooler than the rest of the house....

[Ann Kendig]

I too hated to go down the basement as a kid because of my mean older brothers and sister. I was always terrified that the monster that they had created would reach between the steps and grab my ankles sending me tumbling down the steps and then toss me in the cistern. I also hated it when my mom would send me to the basement to the creepy "fruit room" to get canned foods that we stored down there. It was especially creepy when the sump pump was running under the steps which always scared the bejesus out of me. I found that singing at the top of my lungs and running as fast as I could helped keep away the "big bad". Of course I would wait until the sump pump stopped running before I would begin to take the first step down the basement. I always hoped and prayed it wouldn't start running while I was down there or running up the steps. Being the big sister to a younger brother and sister I had to pass the terrors of the basement onto them as they had been told to me by my older siblings. I also passed on to my younger brother about the monster in the toilet. I'll spare the details but I thought it was pretty funny until my little brother didn't want to use the toilet and tinkled in the register. Boy did I ever get in trouble for that one!! LOL. Anyway, now I have the dogs to go down the basement with me. I just say "basement" and they tear off down the wooden steps sounding like a herd of buffalo. All that noise is a sure guarantee to keep away monsters or even Billy Goat Gruff. It makes me feel better that there is no cistern or open spaces between the steps. : ). I'm glad that you have Spud to help keep the scary basement beings at bay. Good Boy, Spud!!!

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Murphy shares you feelings about the basement.  Our treadmill is in the basement and he knows when I call him to go down there it's "work out" time.  He'd just as soon avoid that because he knows that means we're not doing our long outdoor walk.

[Colleen, Jake & Baxter]

Spud the BRAVE!  I totally understand your not wanting to go down in the basement.  Growing up our family lived for several years with my grandmother.   Back then they used furnaces and to a little kid it was big and scary looking!