John R Purcell

If you have been paying attention to what I have been writing here, you know that I have many squirrels inhabiting my back- yard. While observing them I noticed that one of the squirrels, in particular, stood out above the others in the bunch.

" From radio station WBLA, it's time for "The Sports News of the Day" with our ace sportscaster Biff (the Mouth) Barone. It is a slow time for sports news as the football season is over, basket- ball is on the all star break, there are no pro golf tournaments taking place anywhere and baseball hasn't started yet. So, in order to fill this time period with something, Biff has gone over to the local Huckleberry Golf Course to take a gander at some of the local duffers and report on their game. Isn't that exciting?" "Now, from Huckleberry Golf Course is Biff Barone. Take it away, Biff!"

While on a morning walk, I saw it laying by the side of the road. There was no one around who might have been its owner. I bent down to examine it more closely, but other than a coating of dirt, it did not seem to be injured in any way. Thinking that it may have have been abused by its owner, or perhaps abandoned or lost, I I knew I needed to do something. I could not leave it alone like that. I had rescued others in the same predicament and I I would do the same for this one. I gently gathered it up and brought it home. After washing the dirt off, its shiny white coat was revealed.

When I awoke this morning and dragged myself to the kitchen for my usual coffee fix, I suddenly remembered that it was Valentine's Day. Now every man knows that failure to observe this day by giving his beloved a gift is an unforgivable oversight. I had not remembered to get anything for my wife and I was going to be in very big trouble. Trying to remain calm and not panic, I had to find a solution to this dilemma. Then it came to me, I would surprise her by doing breakfast for her. Since my culinary skills are limited, I thought it best if I bought breakfast and we could have it at home.

The backyard of my house has become the habitat of many squirrels, many, many squirrels. The reason for this is that my yard has become a squirrel paradise. There are several big trees, which are absolutely essential for squirrels as they provide housing, protection from predators and the house dog, even though they know that she, not being very fleet of foot, could not catch them if she tried. The tree also provides an excellent means of trans- portation, as they seem to be constantly leaping from one to another to get from point "A" to point "B" instead of using the ground level commute.

Back in the early 1930's, one of the popular pastimes of the residents of Brooklyn, and other places too, was flying pigeons. Usually the participants of this activity had coops located on the roofs of their houses which were mostly two or three stories and and provided high takeoff sites for the pigeons. My older brother, a teenager then, had a pigeon coop but it was located on the roof of a storage building in our backyard. Putting it on the roof of our two story house would not have been convenient so he built it out there.