A few weeks ago, I was in Chowchilla*, California for my grandmother's birthday when my aunt and uncle, a former MarineNavywho once served in the Navy, revealed the startling news that in the '60s they'd owned a pet monkey named Timmy. (There's just something so sixties about that, don't you think?) Apparently Timmy was very sweet-tempered (tears welled up in my aunt's eyes as she told us about him), but terribly afraid of bathing. The story does not end well. Some neighbors bought Timmy and took him back east where he quickly became ill and then died.
*My birthplace, known for an infamous bus kidnapping that took place there in the '70s--The kidnappers, who'd buried the bus full of kids and the driver in an abandoned mine, couldn't get through on the phone lines to ask for ransom because the tiny town was bombarded with phone calls from the press, so they just left the bus buried and ran. Luckily the victims were able to dig themselves out and they all survived.
I love when pets are named human names like timmy or phillip. What a hilarious revelation!
Posted by: amy | October 23, 2007 at 06:02 PM
I lived in Madera for four years of my childhood--that Chowchilla bus kidnapping story remained in my head almost like the memory of a dream.
I finally looked it up on the web recently, thinking that I must have made it up, that such a preposterous thing couldn't possibly have happened.
But there it was.
Posted by: Antoine Wilson | October 27, 2007 at 11:03 AM
Antoine: We moved away when I was three and I believe we were living in Germany when it happened. I was about the same age as some of the younger children so there was always this feeling that if we had stayed, I could've been on the bus too. It sounds like something straight out of a Steven King novel so I don't wonder that you thought you'd made it up. Btw, I've seen your book everywhere! I'll definitely pick up a copy. Looking forward to reading it...
Posted by: Kim Askew | October 29, 2007 at 12:44 PM
Good think you were in Germany. Hope you enjoy the book--let me know what you think. Cheers, A
Posted by: Antoine Wilson | October 29, 2007 at 01:25 PM
Hi Kim.
Hope this finds you okay. Read your blog and wanted to let you know that your Uncle was in the Navy not the Marine's.
Love Your Aunt Carolyn.
Posted by: Carolyn Askew | November 08, 2007 at 10:03 AM
Hi, Aunt Carolyn! OopsI knew he was in the Navy on a ship so I'm not sure why I mistyped that.
Posted by: kim | November 08, 2007 at 12:24 PM