The quieter you become the more you can hear ~ Ram Dass



Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Monkeying Around

As I've said on this blog, I really have a bad memory.  Sometimes I have to ask my mom and brother about things that happened.  Sometimes they don't remember the exact facts either.  I can blame my mom's lack of memory on her having dementia, I'm not sure what's up with my brother and me LOL.  

Anyhow, when we were younger we had a monkey.  My mom bought it for my dad.  She doesn't remember where but I'm assuming it was from a pet store but who knows.  She said we had it for 7 or 8 years.  I don't remember how old I was.  I think I was pretty young.  I could not find a picture of him anywhere.  Either she never took one or it got lost. 

The monkey's name was Nickey.  He was a squirrel monkey.  What I remember the most about him is that my dad used to put him on a leash and would take him outside to show him off.  Nickey would inevitably be so excited that he always would (TMI coming) poop down the back of dad's shirt LOL.

I remember one time Mom gave him a bath and put him in his cage in front of the space heater to dry.  She forgot about him and he almost died from the heat.  She had to take him outside and run the hose on him but he survived. 

One other thing I remember was mom and dad found out that someone's monkey had escaped and was up in a tree.  They took Nickey there on the leash to see if they could coax the other monkey out of the tree.  I asked Mom the other day if she remembered what happened to the monkey.  She said Nickey reached for the other monkey and it fell out of the tree.  I don't think it survived. 

The monkey and us kids all had rhyming names, Vickey(because that's how my name was spelled at the time), Mickey, Rickey and Nickey.  Only my mom could come up with that LOL.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I remember Nicky. Used to kinda scare me. I remember Grampa messing around with him. You know Grampa liked to agitate people, kids, animals etc. :)
If I think real hard I can remember the funny noises your monkey made.
Brings back old times.
I also remember (from your story on Peterson Nut Co.) when I worked there. From the summer before my senior year, thru my senior year, and then for 4 more years. I don't remember you working there then. Must have been after I left.
Your mom helped me get my job there too, although I was strictly office. Started as A/R, then moved to A/P, then Customer Service and finally Office Manager for the last year I worked. Finally quit when I was pregnant with Brian. What memories you are bringing back.

Julie Kwiatkowski Schuler said...

What kind of neighborhood had TWO monkeys?!!

Sarah said...

I enjoyed reading your story about your pet monkey. I always wished for a monkey of my own when I was a child. It's fun to read your story. Thanks for sharing, and thanks for visiting my Monkeying Around post today.