Rufus 1 14/12/2004 I have been prevailed upon to write of the red dog mentioned in my previous blog. Before I began, I realized that, to write of Rufus meant explaining about Bull Terriers. And to explain about Bull Terriers required me to go a long way back, to Cape Town indeed. And, if I were to get on to that, it would be necessary to start talking of my family, my father especially...So it seems that I may have another book on my hands, as if I needed yet more pressure. But I have nothing remotely ready for the Journal and have already resigned myself to waiting until Christmas has passed before continuing with it. I am out of excuses; it seems the thing must be attempted. Oh great, as if things weren't difficult enough; write two books at once, why don't I?This Rufus thing is exhausting to write. I already know that I can't manage a chapter a day, so I'll just throw each bit up as and when I run out of steam. Here's the first morsel:RufusChapter One - Part OneI grew up with Staffordshire Bull Terriers. Now, that is one heck of a mouthful so from here on in they will be referred to as Staffies. Glad to get that sorted. But, as I was saying...I grew up with Staffies. This happy circumstance was all due to my father's determination to get his own way. He was a strong, silent man who worked hard to provide for his family. As a consequence of this, my sisters and I saw too little of him in those early years, when memories were just beginning to be laid down. To us, he was authority itself and the threat of, "Wait till your father gets home" was always enough to deter us from mischief.It was rare for him to use his strength of character against my mother. Generally he was content to allow her whatever she wanted, for he was a man of simple tastes and few desires. I can think of very few instances when he pushed through on something he wanted, regardless of her opinion.That first Staffie was one such occasion. And the manner in which he broached the subject was typical of the man. It was over dinner one night that he said casually, "There's a man down the street with some puppies to sell."My mother looked up immediately. "We can't have a dog. I've enough to cope with, the kids and the house and you away most of the time."He settled back in his chair and smiled at her. "Oh I thought I'd have a wander down after dinner and have a look. Just a look, that's all.""Well we're not having one. And don't take the kids with you - they'll only go on at me about taking one if they see them."My father nodded wisely as he smiled back at her. "Just a look, dear. That's all."No more was said and we returned to the meal. I knew nothing of dogs at the time and so took no more than a passing interest in the brief conversation. My father disappeared after dinner and we hardly noticed his absence.Some time later he reappeared with an old blanket wrapped around something in his arms. We followed him into the living room where my mother sat reading. He said nothing but deposited the bundle in the center of the room and unwrapped it. My mother watched, her lips compressed into a thin line of disapproval.The puppy, a square, solid little thing of total confidence, looked around at us all, shook itself almost off its paws, then waddled straight for my mother. Her resistance collapsed immediately and she took the bold little mite into her arms, glancing just once at my father and releasing an "Oh Hubert!"My father's broken promise was never mentioned, that day or any day since.
Clive
Mad "a square, solid little thing of total confidence, looked around at us all, shook itself almost off its paws" Heh! That's a Staffie puppy alright. Love it Dad! More I say, more! Date Added: 14/12/2004
Gone Away I knew you'd say that... :( Date Added: 14/12/2004
Way. One in the crowd: Oy! But can that man juggle a ball nicely! Call out the king and step aside! Another: Right, he can, that. And most talented the cove be. But in the next villiage is a bloke what can do two at once, so I 'ear. A third gent: Stone the crows! That's nothing -- why just last week I saw with me own eyes a chap do three! Now there's a show. Old woman: Rubbish to you all. 'Im and his fancy ball. It can't be done, two or three. Date Added: 14/12/2004
Hannah So, you've taken up juggling, have you? I'll just sit back and admire the pretty handkerchiefs in the air. (You DO call them handkerchiefs, don't you?) Date Added: 14/12/2004
Gone Away 'Ere! Wot's this geezer on abaht? 'Oo do 'e fink 'e is anyway? It's a bleedin' cheek, if you ask me... Love the accent, Way. Dick van Dyke has a lot to answer for with his hilarious attempts at a cockney accent. I'm still chuckling... Date Added: 14/12/2004
Gone Away 'Ankies, me dear, 'ankies. Good grief, he's got me doing it now too... Date Added: 14/12/2004
Way ROFLarfin, sez I Date Added: 14/12/2004
Way Where does a good story begin, and how should it end? These questions come to mind, reading of African childhood, and I suspect neither has borders that matter to us who have an interest in details. Forge to and fro, Clive. Resist obscuring the mundane, for you tell tales well. Date Added: 14/12/2004
Gone Away Good advice from the master. A minor problem, in that my whole life has been mundane. ;) Thank you, Way. Date Added: 14/12/2004
Way So has mine. But read the letters on yer car's rear-view mirror abt "objects appearing larger". Now, excuse me...I have a small flip to try out...someone get a camera, or just in case, dial 9-11. Date Added: 14/12/2004
Gone Away A flip hey? What has the magician up his sleeve this time, I wonder... Date Added: 14/12/2004
Gone Away Tarnation - done it again. Fix it for me Mad, please. Only "this" was supposed to be in italics. Never comment when you're sipping the wine... Date Added: 14/12/2004
Harry Voice from the bottom of empty pool: "Someone say wine?" Date Added: 14/12/2004
Ned You realize of course, that there is nothing more American than the tale of a boy and his dog. I agree about Dick Van Dyke, makes the whole movie hard to watch despite his great talents in other areas. Date Added: 15/12/2004
Gone Away "Hic!"
And Ned, are we talking old yeller dogs here or one named Lassie? Date Added: 15/12/2004
Gone Away "Young children can become entangled and strangle in cord or bead loops."
So says the wording of a label pasted on the bottom of the Venetian blind in the window. It may add interesting facts to this statement, but the label bends under the blind at that point, making it impossible to see any continuation. One hopes that it then offers advice as to how to avoid such an event but there is no guarantee of this. It may be just a passing observation by some sadistic employee of the blind company. Date Added: 15/12/2004
Gone Away I have two age spots on my hand. On the back, near the thumb, where they are noticed by me occasionally. You know the kind of spots I mean; those brown blotches that decorate the darkening and dessicated hands of old people. Hands that hang listelessly while their owners wait for the next memory to pass by. And I have two on my hand.
They look darker today for some reason. It may be the light or perhaps they are annoyed at the lack of sleep I allow myself, now that I am writing again. They might even be cancer, were I to worry about them at all.
Old friends. Date Added: 15/12/2004
Ned Did you notice you made everything go into italics? And the reasonably prudent man noting that children can become entangled in cord loops, unloops them, Sheesh. There was even a movie a few years ago called A Boy and His Dog and they were both American. Date Added: 15/12/2004
Mad Now listen here Nedders, you guys can claim lots of things but you can't claim the invention of dogs (or boys for that matter)... ;) Date Added: 15/12/2004
Gone Away I did notice about the italics and I knew immediately what I had done wrong. Hence the message immediately following, asking Mad to fix it (I have no editing power in the blog - as yet).
And movies, perversely enough, are a French invention. Date Added: 15/12/2004
Way It may have been my first inkling that recreational drugs are a dangerous toy after a pal and I stumbled across "A Boy and His Dog". Thinking to spend the haze watching some Disney fare, we paid our own fare and went inside. Shock. Horror. Gasp. Cringe. Bolt. Steve later killed himself, altho that had nothing to do with this. Date Added: 15/12/2004
Way But we did invent jazz, dating and the drive-in theater. Get Kathy to direct you over to see the Hankins, Mt.Scott and Austin in Lawton to see defunct ones. Eleven more still-active screens were scattered around Oklahoma, as of 1999. Date Added: 15/12/2004
Gone Away Never having seen the movie, I have no idea what you're talking about. But I do recall going to see "Blow-up" in a similar haze. There was a short before the main feature about advertising and a stuffed lion. WE found it hilarious right from the start and were guffawing and sniggering away before we realized the rest of the audience were totally silent. It was so funny that we couldn't help ourselves however and we were saved only by the fact that the audience began to see the humor about halfway through the short.
I have stood upon the top of Mt Scott but the other places mean nothing to me, sadly.
We had drive-in cinemas in Africa way back then and much of my teenage history took place in that setting. The rest happened in drive-in restaurants. :D Date Added: 15/12/2004
Way I am seeing no mention of Hollywood truisim here. Where are the swinging vines? The man-eating lions? The "Men say no go, b'wana. Men say ju-ju" dialogue? Oh, say it ain't so about drive-ins and dates! Woe unto the USA! A pox on Universal! Must I now heave out my jazz collection too? Date Added: 15/12/2004
Mad *sigh* We'd better get the spears and the drums out Dad, they seem to be on to us... Date Added: 15/12/2004
Gone Away How hard it is to be the one who destroys illusions. The swinging vines belong only in that part of Africa known as the Congo where the rain forest that Tarzan needed for his exploits exists. The rest is mainly savannah with a desert stuck at both ends, the Sahara in the north, the Namib to the south. In the savannah there are lions (they don't bother with jungles) but, in general, they prefer the taste of wildebeest to that of man. It is true that the locals say "bwana" and "ju-ju" but only much farther north than the land where I was raised; you could try Kenya for that. In South Africa and Zimbabwe we had all the trappings of civilization, including, as I have mentioned, drive-ins and dating. We took what we wanted from both sides of the Atlantic, just as the Australians do now and, as a result, much of what I see in America is familiar to me in a sort of dreamy, half-remembered way. You guys have no idea how permeated with your culture the world has become in the last few generations. Even in the most remote corner of the African bush you will come across local stores emblazoned with "Coke" signs. As to your jazz collection, I would advise you to keep it; its origins lie deep in the heart of West Africa after all. I always preferred rock music myself and here, once again, we stole the best from both England and the States. The strange thing now is that I yearn for the real African music, the kwela of Johannesburg, the pop of Zimbabwe that burrows deep into its heritage of Shona folk music. Date Added: 15/12/2004
Mad Ahhh the far distant strains of "Shosholoza", african voices raised in natural harmonies... Date Added: 15/12/2004
Gone Away The deep rumble of Zulu voices chanting to the thump of their boots as they make their way in the dusty dawn to the Jo'burg mines, the high-pitched jangle of over-strung guitar and penny whistle virtuoso over the driving rhythm that is kwela, the irrepressible joy of the Shona drumbeat and the plunking guitars mimicking the rattle and zing of the marimba... Date Added: 15/12/2004
Gone Away You've done it now Way. African nostalgia rampages rampant through the blogs... Date Added: 15/12/2004
Mad Nkosi Sikelel'i Afrika Date Added: 15/12/2004
Way Great googly-moogly, Gone. I am sorry. But then I have this site, which may or may not be available (yet it still works on my end) http://www.npr.org/programs/re/archivesdate/2003/may/mali/ And remind me to tell you the bit someday of me sitting at a table surrounded by other college students as we listened to the exotic accent of a most-lovely lady from Africa. And don't forget to ask about my comment to her that her English was pretty good, after I had asked how long she had been in the US, to which she said, "Wan year." But don't expect me to tell of her frosty reply that, "Een Ah-free-ka, avry wan speak Engliss." That part is much too embarassing. Date Added: 15/12/2004
Way Mad, me wannan yake nufi? Date Added: 15/12/2004
Gone Away Interesting site, Way. Thank you. But Mali's music, indeed all North Africa's, is too Arabic-influenced for my taste. As I was remarking to Mad only this morning, the most musical people in Africa are the Shona (or possibly the Shangaans of Mozambique). And the Zulu and Xhosa could put a fair old tune together too. If you ask me really nicely, I am prepared to attempt an explanation of how to pronounce the "Xh" in Xhosa. ;)
Has Mad mentioned that he is an honorary Zulu? Perhaps I could persuade him to blog on that one...` Date Added: 15/12/2004
Way Two v. interesting proposals, Gone. I must indeed ask nicely for the first, and further volunteer to not squirm or laugh at your attempt, as I wish to hush and wait quietly to see if Mad will soon appear. Date Added: 15/12/2004
Mad Shangaans!?! Who dares mention the shangaan dogs near me, Fwetu, the honourary Zulu!? Date Added: 16/12/2004
Gone Away OK Way, here's the deal. You have to make a clicking sound by pushing your tongue against the roof of your mouth, then suddenly dragging it downwards. Practice this until you're making an audible click and then you're about ready to do the rest. Make the click then immediately say "oh-za" (preferably in a very deep voice). That should get you pretty close to the actual pronunciation of "Xhosa". Nelson Mandela is Xhosa (just an extra snippet of information I throw in for free).
I won't bore you with the details of where the click comes from. Instead, I'll teach you the Siamese national anthem... Date Added: 16/12/2004
Gone Away Pssst...Shangaans, Jock, Shangaans... Date Added: 16/12/2004
Way How many dogs did you have? Date Added: 16/12/2004
Gone Away Let's see now.... I'll take it that you mean me to include my father's dogs that I grew up with as well as those I owned as an adult. This is pre-empting "Rufus" to some extent but no matter. There was Bunty, the first. She had 36 pups in six separate litters. There was Pan, a boxer my father bought on a whim. Then came the mighty Rufus and he was joined in later life by another Bull Terrier named Jenny. The first dog I owned myself was Josie (a Staffie), the greatest of them all (but then she would be - she was mine). And a while later we acquired Brutus, another Staffie. Josie had one litter of six pups. You do the math; I'll sip the wine. ;) Date Added: 16/12/2004
Fwet *grabs his fighting sticks and gets ready to ambush the Shangaans* Date Added: 16/12/2004
josh I do believe we call them pit bulls here. Date Added: 17/12/2004
Wayfareingstranger Be more respectful of the Shangaans, Josh. Date Added: 17/12/2004
Gone Away LOL Way.
Very close, Josh. Pit bulls, or more correctly, American Staffordshire Terriers, are direct descendants of Staffies imported from England in the late 19th Century. The Americans bred for size, however, and the typical AST is now a much larger dog than the Staffie. Look in their eyes, however, and that same Staffie spirit smiles back at you. The savage reputation of the AST is caused purely by a few rogue owners who continued to use them for fighting and encouraged a bad streak in the breed that is totally against the true characteristics of the Staffie (which is one of only two breeds noted by the Kennel Club as being totally trustworthy with children). Date Added: 17/12/2004
Josh I cannot say I totally dislike being misunderstood -- however, I am familiar with breed. I lived with a pit bull for enh, about 2 years. He was a very good dog, and an absolute softy. No, you won't find unfair stereotypes here. I am a dog owner myself, and every time someone at the local dog park whines because Oscar sure is barking a lot I think about how silly some people are in relation to the animal that has been closest to humankind for millennia. Date Added: 17/12/2004
Gone Away I agree with you completely, Josh. My defensive little diatribe was intended only for those who would not understand the adjectives "good" and "softy" being applied to the pit bull. ;) Date Added: 17/12/2004
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