Doggone Beautiful Fun

I’m not much for Halloween so I’m not usually interested in special segments on TV shows this time of year giving how-to’s for costumes. But today on The Bonnie Hunt Show they were showing Halloween costumes for your dogs and it brought back some sweet memories of my little Bitsy Sue. She was part Chihuahua and part Toy Terrier and she was a sweet companion of mine for much of my childhood. I remember dressing her in my doll dresses. She wasn’t really thrilled but she went along. She let me put anything on her I wanted and although she might have a kind of sad face, she didn’t complain (she didn’t run away or bite me).

Bitsy Sue loved riding in my bicycle basket. I would usually put a brown paper sack in the bottom of the basket so her little paws wouldn’t fall through the wires and she would ride with me wherever I would take her. Once I rode down to the corner gas station to get some candy or some other treat and left her at home, or at least I thought I did. While making my decision of what treat I’d buy (probably Giant Sweetarts) I turned around and there was Bitsy Sue standing outside looking in as if to say, “Why did you leave me at home? I wanted to go, too.”

One of our favorite games was where I would throw a jack ball down our long hall and she would chase after it. Sometimes she could catch it on the bounce and sometimes she’d hit the tile floor and slide under the table. But she would bring back the ball and we’d do it all over again.

She was a protector, too. If someone came to the house she didn’t know she'd bark like she would tear them apart.

Pets bring back fond memories. What games did you play with your pets growing up? Was it as much fun for them as it was for you?

Mud Pies

Do little girls make mud pies these days? Maybe little girls that live in the country but I doubt that little city girls even know what they are.

I had a set of mini cookware when I was a little girl or that’s how I remember it. I think I had a little pie pan and maybe a muffin tin. But I remember especially when visiting my grandparents out in West Texas, that I’d spend hours playing like the water tank was my kitchen (it had a spout on it so that could be the sink). The field was maybe five feet away so the ingredients of my famous mud pies were plentiful.

I would mix the dirt from the field and water from the tank and then put the “batter” into the pie plate for it to “cook”. Of course, it took hours, maybe even a day for the pie to “cook”. But I remember cutting slices in that pie just like my mama did and serving it up on my play dishes with my play forks. My parents would pretend to taste that wonderful pie and just take on and brag about how good it was.

I wonder who thought up mud pies? How did it get passed down from little girl to little girl? To my surprise there are all kinds of mud pies today – I Googled it! There are mud pie recipes (using chocolate, not dirt), mud pie gifts, mud pie collectables, mud pie glassware & tableware. There’s even a publisher using that name, publishing for stuff for kids. So I must not be the only one that has fond memories of making mud pies.

I still don’t know where making mud pies came from. A few pages of Google and I’m done with research. But it might be worth a google for you sometime. You might find some fun things to do with your little ones. But don’t ask me for the recipe for the “old fashioned mud pie”. Other than a little dirt and a little water I have no idea. But if you think about it, the “a little of this and a little of that” approach usually turns out the best. You could throw in a few pebbles for chocolate nuggets or apples, depending on your imagination. Sure ‘nough ingredients for a lot of great memories and some pretty cute pictures.