Trigger’s Lunch

I lived above my parents grocery store along with my five siblings. Every year in the summer my parents had a special sale in the store. Little Oscar and the Wiener Mobile gave rides to the kids who came with their parents to buy groceries. It was better than the Fourth of July because my dad did not like fireworks.

One time we also brought our blue buckskin pony in from our cousin's farm to give pony rides. I think it was pretty exciting for Trigger (originality was not our forte.) I also had a special fondness for Trigger because he bucked off my cousin and I never like her very much.

Since, at that time, no girl ever left her home without wearing at least three heavily starched crinolines. We used lots and lots of granulated sugar to starch them really stiffly. At that time sugar was the cheapest starch. Since there were four girls in our family we washed and starched between eight to ten crinolines every week. We hung them on the clothes line the morning of the big event in the yard and Trigger's for a day.

We all pitched in for the big event. From youngest to oldest, each of us had our job. About an hour after returning Trigger to the back yard after the last pony ride, we went to the clothes line to bring in the heavily sugar starched slips. All that was left hanging on the line were ten elastic waist bands and Trigger licking his pony lips with a big smile on his face.