Kids and yes, adults too, love their animals. In Greenwood, there were the pets that lived in town and those that worked for a living just like the kids on the farms.
In the 1940s, as one of many pets in Greenwood, the Armstrong boys had a dog named Prince. Check him out so regal, surveying town from his post in front of their Atlantic Station on the corner of Andover Road and Main Street.
However, back in December of 1907, just three families in town had a dog. The Slocum's Donovan, The Kellogg's Fritz and the Johnson's Ted.
An article in the Greenwood News described how Mrs. Slocum caused the death of her dog with chloroform with the help of a farm hand. It also said that Fritz had recently past and that "poor old Ted was alone and looking sorrowful and lonely."
Speeding back to the 1940s and 1950s and there were many pets of all kinds in not only town, but, on the farms on Greenwood Hill too.
Kathleen Lounsberry Murray here. When I was a child, we had mostly farm animals to take care of. I was partial to kittens and played with them until they were old enough to work at keeping rodents from the barn. And, for a short time, I had a goat named Silver Tip. I think we already shared the story of what happen there. Those curtains didn't have a chance.
Evelyn Lounsberry Cornell here. Kappy is right. Mostly, farmers had animals that worked, not real pets. Mother (Flora Lounsberry) would not allow animals in the house. Dad (Albert Lounsberry) treated his coon dogs like pets when they weren't hunting and was pretty partial to three of the horses, Old Dan, Molly and Dolly. He had those horses well before he had a family.
Sally Murray Coates here. I used to go up to the Lounsberry farm with Kappy. I was sweet on her brother Bobby back then. One day, I was up there riding on their mule and I guess he knew it was dinner time. He took off, "hell bent for election" to the barn. I had to duck to go through the barn door and he went straight to his food. That was the end of my ride that day.
Wayne Warriner here. Well, there was my collie, Pal. I got him when I was three. One day, I was chasing him around in circles while Dad was pounding fence posts. I got too close and Dad caught me with the maul on the upswing and split my head open. We were at the far end of the farm on the line fence of the John Rogers farm. Dad took off running to get the car and Grandpa headed back with the team and wagon. Dad was a fast runner, because he and Mom met us with the car at the top of the hill and Grandpa had the horses going at the trot. I remember being scared of the nuns at St. James where I got stitched up. That was April 1946. Harlan was less than a month old. Pal loved to chase cars and never got hit which was a wonder because he would bite the front tires. He also liked to kill woodchucks and would bring them home to "ripen". When he was still a pup a cattle dealer came to the farm and whacked him with his cane. Years later we came home from a trip to town and found the cattle dealer cornered in the box of his truck by Pal. He never forgot. Pal lived to a ripe old age, 16 or 17. I was away at college, still in Ag school so it was winter '62 or '63. Oh, I still have the scar in my left eyebrow and a little dent in my skull.
While they lived in town, the Murray kids, had house and farm pets, but mostly, rescue pets.
John Murray here. Mom (Margaret Murray) had Boston Bull Dogs and everyone of them was called Lady. My sister Sally (Murray Coates) had a rat terrier called Shorty. She sure loved him. She would even share her ice cream cones. Sally would take a lick, then Shorty, then Sally...
The first John Murray (Grandad, I guess) here. I had collies and maybe an English sheep dog mix. As Jackie, my grandson, he calls himself John now, said, their names were always Skippy. Now, Pearl didn't allow a dog in the house; they stayed under the house. They worked. Each mornin' when I got up I would hit the floor with my shoe and whatever Skippy would run out and gather the cows. By the time I got to the barn, he had them all ready for milking.
Jackie, I guess, again. I had a Skippy, too. Skippy came to us with a gun shot wound. My sister Catherine (Murray Hawkins) and I patched him up. I named him Skippy 'cause Grandad (John Murray) called all his collies Skippy, so I called my dog that too. He was a water spaniel. Around the time we found Skippy, there were about 8 other strays in town. One day a dog catcher came to get all of them. He said if I could come up with the $2.25 for a license, I could keep Skippy. So I went and counted it out from my savings. When I moved to Grandma and Grandpa's at 14 years old, Skippy stayed and became my brother, Stan's dog or at least he followed him around all the time.
Stan (Murray Jr) here. Yes, Skippy followed me everywhere. He went with us boys to the Husseys. Gary Chaffee, David Waight and my best bud Curtis. Cheryl had a couple horses and we would try and ride them. They would run right for the woods and knock us off with the tree branches. Ol' Skippy sure did not like getting into a car though. Sometimes, neighbor's would see us out and offer us a ride home. I would jump in the car; but, not Skippy. He would run along behind on the way home.
Catherine here. I had a cat named Goldie.
Stan again. We kids helped with the farm animals too. Dad had sheep on the old O'Dell place. A ewe had twins and wouldn't take care of the one. We brought her to our barn, called her Betty, and bottle fed her. And Ricky, the baby racoon, we kept in the basement for a time after it's mother was killed over toward Andover. I guess we had a reputation because it was dropped at the station. There was the fawn that the whole town adopted. I called her Bambi.
John here again. When all us kids in town would be sledding, we would give that fawn an apple and she would pull our sleds back up the hill for us.
Stan back. John had pigeons for a time that he kept in his chicken coop. For a while anyway. He went to scout camp when I was about 6 years old and asked me to water them. I forgot and they all died. We had some guinea pigs and one year Anna Marie and I got parakeets for Christmas, blue for me, I named him Pete.
Anna Marie (Murray Schwartz) here. And, green for me, I named her Polly.
Lew Cornell here. Speaking of birds. I had a parrot. He always rode around on my shoulder. Janette (Streeter), my sweet wife, was none too fond of him. He made a mess of the house. Just ask her about her curtains. Once, he was on my shoulder while I was driving and bit my ear. I wrecked my car. I also, had a monkey. Janette didn't like him either; but, the guys at the bar loved them both.
John Murray back. That monkey ruined my new bomber jacket. It jumped on my shoulder and relieved itself all over my jacket and I could never get the stench out of it. Lew also helped Danny Redman with his bees. I would help out too sometimes.
Stan back. John taught me how to build the forms for the hives. I was deathly afraid of the bees; but, not John. He was not afraid of anything. John would walk right into a swarm and grab a queen and put her into a little box and take her back to the hives we built.
Rich Updyke here. John and I kept and competed coon dogs at the field trials while in high school. He kept some at his house in the barn and I kept some at mine.
John back. I had about seven dogs. None of them did too well in competition; but, it was fun. One of my best was actually a yellow lab blue tick mix. Rich had some with greyhound in them. But, our very best competitor wasn't even our dog. It was Curtis Mattison's from up on Christian Hollow. We would barrow his family pet and compete him.
While this picture was taken in Tennessee, I can imagine that it is similar to the coon dog field trials held around Greenwood in the 1940s.
Kathleen (Lounsberry Murray) back. If it wasn't for those coon dogs, I may never have seen John while we were dating. As we shared before, he ran them to our farm and back and a lot of our dates were at the field trials.
As you can see, the kids of Greenwood made pets of everything. And, the adults, well maybe only Lew, had a bit more exotic pets and some had lap dogs and cats to keep them company. The farm kids, their animals worked as hard as they did.
If you had a pet while growing up in Greenwood, tell us your story in the Facebook Comments.