It’s too bad this photo is blurry. It’s from Lynne’s photo archives and is a picture of my father with his faithful shadow Dopey trailing behind him. She took it the first year we became friends in seventh grade. Daddy was still in the Army then, and we’d just moved into this house that my parents had built. There was a little white door in the foundation on the back of the house that led to a surprisingly spacious crawl space under the house that was a favorite hideaway for Dopey and me.
The first time Lynne came to our house when my father was home, she and I were sitting in the living room, listening to music, cutting up, and giggling in the way of ‘tween girls. All of a sudden my father, in the den, bellowed in his best drill sergeant voice, “SHUT UP!”
Lynne’s face flushed and her blue eyes were as big as saucers. I glanced at her and said, “What?”
“I didn’t know I was being that loud,” she whispered. “I’m TERRIFIED of your father.”
I started laughing so hard I almost fell off the couch and finally assured her, “He was hollering at Dopey to stop barking under the house.”