{"id":19067,"date":"2021-11-06T21:13:38","date_gmt":"2021-11-07T01:13:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=19067"},"modified":"2021-11-06T21:16:12","modified_gmt":"2021-11-07T01:16:12","slug":"episode-472-this-is-old-dick-granddad-freemans-last-horse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=19067","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 472 THIS IS OLD DICK, GRANDDAD FREEMAN’S LAST HORSE"},"content":{"rendered":"
EPISODE 472    THIS IS OLD DICK, GRANDDAD FREEMAN\u2019S LAST HORSE<\/p>\n

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alan skeoch<\/div>\n
Nov. 2021<\/div>\n

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OLD DICK\u2026.REMEMBERED<\/div>\n

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\u201cWHAT IS THAT horse skull doing up on the cross beam in the dining room?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThat is granddad\u2019s last horse.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSick thing to do\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNot really because I attach the skull to a touching story.\u201d<\/div>\n

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THOSE WINTER EVENINGS ARE UNFORGETTABLE<\/div>\n

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\u201cMy brother Eric and I heard the story on a winter night when<\/div>\n
we were all huddled around the wood stove while the night wind<\/div>\n
howled and snow filtered through The window gaps.  We heard lots<\/div>\n
of stories that way but the  tale of old Dick was so touching\u2026so unforgettable\u2026so revealing\u2026.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSo what?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cSo, when spring came,  Eric and I walked though the bush to the burying ground and found Old Dick.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cYour grandparents allowed you to put that skull up there?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNo, that was my idea long after grandma and grandpa were gone\u2026we gutted the old farm house\u2026.renovated<\/div>\n
the place complete  with exposed hand hewn beams\u2026.which seemed a good place to put Old Dick as a reminder<\/div>\n
of that winter story.\u201d<\/div>\n

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WHAT STORY?   <\/div>\n

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This is the way I would like to tell the story.  The bare bones are true\u2026the flesh of the story is mine.<\/div>\n

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\u201cAS the Freemans got older, they reduced the farm livestock until the only living creature in the barn<\/div>\n
was Old Dick.  He wasn\u2019t used anymore but he was kept around because they loved him.  Or, at least,<\/div>\n
I assumed that was the case.<\/div>\n

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Then Old Dick reached some kind of crisis where he could no longer function properly\u2026perhaps he went lame,<\/div>\n
or his teeth failed, \u2026whatever.  Granddad had  to face a tough decision… he had to take action.  Miserable time.<\/div>\n
Edward Freeman called up Angus Mcechern, a close neighbour and  they both walked Old Dick east to the<\/div>\n
very back field\u2026the burying ground. Angus led Old Dick by his halter.  Granddad carried the gun.  When they<\/div>\n
got to the place granddad asked the dreaded question.  \u201cWhere should I shoot him, Angus?\u201d   And Angus<\/div>\n
pointed to a place somewhere on the skull.  Angus used his finger \u2026\u201dright here\u201d<\/div>\n

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At the very moment granddad fired the gun.  Angus\u2019s finger was still in place.<\/div>\n
\u201cWhy did you do that..you could have blown my finger off.\u201d<\/div>\n

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And granddad looked at Angus and said,  \u201cIf I didn\u2019t fire then, I would not be able to fire at all.\u201d<\/div>\n

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“You see my point?  You see why Old Dick is up there on the beam?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNo, I don\u2019t really understand.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThink about it\u2026think long and hard\u2026think about the old times when horses were an integral part of farm life\u2026think<\/div>\n
about the tough decisions that had to be made\u2026think about Old Dick\u2026and think what granddad Freemn meant<\/div>\n
when he said \u2018if I did not pull the  trigger then, I am not sure I would ever be able to do so.\u2019<\/div>\n

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Empathy is necessary to understand.  You either have it or you don\u2019t have it.  Empathy.<\/div>\n

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EPISODE 472    THIS IS OLD DICK, GRANDDAD FREEMAN\u2019S LAST HORSE alan skeoch Nov. 2021 OLD DICK\u2026.REMEMBERED \u201cWHAT IS THAT horse skull doing up on the cross beam in the dining room?\u201d \u201cThat is granddad\u2019s last horse.\u201d \u201cSick thing to do\u201d \u201cNot really because I attach the skull to a touching story.\u201d THOSE WINTER EVENINGS […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19067\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}