Certainly someone else in the Kelley Class of 1969 remembers this grand event held in the Silver Bay Shopping Center, 1958 or 1959. (If it was in 1959, perhaps businessmen or the City council or a group of Silver Bay citizens were trying to take our minds off the Steelworker's strike that seemed to go on forever and sent my family back to the farm. I will certainly write about that later.)
As far as this animal contest - Daddy convinced me to take Boots. And we spent the morning of the competition making the Pomeranian look as beautiful as possible. We bathed him and brushed him and he actually seemed to like all the attention. Mom did a lot of sewing, in fact she was apprenticed to a dressmaker in Minneapolis in her teen, so she had all kinds of ribbons in a sewing basket. We we chose red and tied a big bow around his neck so you could barely see his collar.Boots was as handsome as I'd ever seen him.
We lived on Charles at the corner of Banks so the Shopping Center was just up the hill, past the woods and the green steel municipal building. I think we may have walked up to the event for I recall walking through the parking lot that was nearly full. There were a lot people with their pets. There were probably cats. Maybe rabbits, too? Hamsters? Tropical fish? Turtles? But I only remember dogs. There were so many of them. And this sense of hopelessness came over me. Boots would never win a prize. Not with this many dogs competing for a prize.
The judging took place on the cement walkway in front of the line of shops. I stood with Boots on this sidewalk, near the entrance of the Rexall store. There were many dogs on either side of me. Most were with adults owners. Daddy stood behind me. The judge was a lady I knew. She was one of my Sunday school or Bible school teachers. Her name started with an R. Maybe Mrs. Reimer? Roemer? She went down the line of dogs, slowly, looking at each carefully and asking questions... (to be continued)
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