There never was a horse like Shane...

I got birdied so many times this past week that my ears are still ringing!

Mom recently told me a story that had me laughing in tears. Part of the humor is in the way that she tells it, so my retelling it won't be quite as funny.

We lived for a time in a large house on a hill overlooking North Avenue in Haverhill, Ma. The house had a huge barn, a corral and boarding horses. Barbara had her own horse - a gray standard named Shane. Shane had a habit of getting loose and running out in the street where people would have to catch him and bring him back.

One day Dad had gone off to work and all the kids had gone off to school. Mom was doing some housework in her bathrobe and curlers. She heard some commotion and looked out the front window - several men were running up and down the street trying to catch a gray horse. She looked out back and saw the barn door had been left open.

Without hesitation, she ran out the door and stood at the top of our hill, overlooking the street. As the men ran up and down the street below, she stood there in her bathrobe and curlers shouting out "Shane! Come back Shane!" When the men eventually caught the horse, Mom started clapping and cheering. As they walked the horse back up the street toward the house, Mom was clapping her hands, making some smooching and clicking noises and calling out "Come Shane! Come on Shane!" At one point the men and the horse just stopped and stood there looking up at her. Then they quickly loaded the horse into a trailer and drove off.

Perplexed and alarmed, Mom ran through the open door of the barn and over to Shane's stall - there stood Shane, blinking back at her.

This crazy woman in curlers had been yelling at two men trying to catch their own horse!

--jimmy