Tuesday, December 12, 2023

Letter to Joe


 

Dear Joe,


    I’m sure you remember old Ed Bradbury and

 Maggie, you haven’t been gone that long.

 Years ago we hunted ducks on the slough

 over on the back of Ed’s farm, where you go

 to floundering around in the mud and nearly

 got in over your hip boots. Well, Ed was in the

 pool hall last Saturday most of the afternoon

 and returneto find Maggie lying dead on the

 living room couch. If you don’t remember Ed,

 I’m sure you remember Maggie. In her

 younger days there wasn’t a man in these

 parts who didn’t envy old Ed. Everyone use to

 wonder how in the dickens he wound up with

 her. Anyway she’s gone! Doc Harris told

 Preacher Bishop this morning that he figured it

 was her heart, but no one will ever know. Ed is

 taking it pretty hard, but that’s to be expected,

 as close as they were.

 

     I talked to him just last week in town when

 he was in getting her some medicine and he

 said at the time she just didn’t feel like getting

 out  of the pick-up. That’s not at all like

 Maggie, you know how outgoing she was. I

 spoke to her that evening, but she didn’t pay

 much attention, she was just sitting there

 looking out the window as if she didn’t even

 know who I was. I didn’t realize how old she

 was getting, but if you think about it, Ed

 brought her to this country nigh onto 15 years

 ago. I remember she didn’t like it at first, and

 Ed though about taking her back to the city,

 but Maggie was quick to make friends and in

 no time at all it was like she’d been here all

 her life.


     The two of them were inseparable, every

 Saturday when Ed came in town to buy feed,

 she’d ride along, sitting right over next to him

 as if she were afraid he was going to get away

 from her. They’d drop by the filling station on

 the way home and he’d buy her a candy bar

 while he had a bottle of pop. Of course she

 was a beauty back then, back before she put

 on so much weight. I’m sure that getting so

 heavy was hard on her health, but Maggie just

 loved to eat, and Ed bought her nothing but

 the best!

 

    They had her funeral on Sunday afternoon,

 but not too many of Ed’s friends were there

 and I guess Ed’s pretty upset about that too.

 But shucks it was all so fast most of us were

 gone or didn’t know about it until Monday or

 Tuesday. I’d have been there if I hadn’t been

 hunting ducks. I thought the world of her. In

 fact, I never told anyone this, but she came

 over to my place once when Ed made that trip

 to the city and spent most of the day. We went

 for a swim down at the creek. But she was a

 smart one…she was back home an hour

 before Ed was. She was partial to me and one

 of Ed’s neighbors, old Horace Glitch. She’d

 get a little peeved cause she couldn’t go in the

 pool hall with Ed, and she’d sneak off down to

 the river where Horace was bank-fishing and

 drinking beer, and not come in ‘til after dark.

 Ed never did know where she’d been, and still

 don’t I reckon. That Maggie loved beer and

 pretzels even more than candy bars.


      Some of his friends think it’s ridiculous for

 Ed to be carrying on this way, but they don’t

 know how much he thought of Maggie. And

 Ed doesn’t have anyone else, his wife left him

 8 or 10 years ago. She told him to choose

 between them and he chose Maggie. Who

 could blame him, that wife of his never shut

 up, and she spent money like it grew on trees.

 And she constantly found fault with old Ed.

 Maggie never did…anything Ed did was all 

 right with her. Well to all those who say it’s

 silly for a man that age to grieve so over a

 dog, I say they don’t know what it’s like to lose

 a good Labrador! That Maggie was a

 sweetheart.


 Well, I’d best sign off Joe. I want to take my 'ol

 dog Magnum out in the morning and see if we

 can work some ducks before Christmas gets

 here. The mallards and the green-wings are in

 pretty good, and the wood ducks are long

 gone. Can’t wait to see you and the family at

 Christmas.


Sam


The Lightnin’ Ridge Magazine’s Christmas

 issue is almost 100 pages of great reading.

 You can get one mailed to you by calling

 Gloria at 417 777 5227


 

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