Today, we lost my cousin (he was my stepdad's nephew), Wayman (aka fondly known as Butch)

Today, we lost my cousin (he was my stepdad’s nephew), Wayman (aka fondly known as Butch). I have many, many fond memories of him growing up. I remember the ride down South hill in Spokane, in the little red convertible VW bug and our dads flying down the hill with us kids in the backseat. Such fun! I remember the ice cream truck at their house in Spokane. However, probably the fondest memories for me are the days Wayman came to live with us one summer in 1962. My mother writes about that time in her memories…which I write here as I think it is sharable. So as my mother writes- We got a call one evening from Bob’s older brother, Warren. He wanted us to take his son Butch for the summer to get him out of town. Butch was about 15 years of age and had no experience of country life whatsoever. We had 2 kids of our own and many demands on our lives at that time, so we weren’t overly excited about adding more to our list. To top it off, he had a German Short Hair dog. Of course, the dog came with the package. We had to scramble around in our little house to make room for the boy and his dog, which we did. They both ended up sleeping upstairs in this old house. Well, Butch was a wonderful kid and it didn’t take long before we loved him immensely. The dog was just okay. Butch got a job changing irrigation pipes for the neighbor, about a half mile away. He would get up at 4 in the morning and walk to work and be gone until 6 at night. He had to change the water twice a day. But it was a job he could do and make a little money for school in the fall. It wasn’t long before the neighbors had him doing all kinds of jobs. It was getting later and later before he got home at night. I had already told the neighbors he needed to be home by 6 or he couldn’t work there any longer. Their reasoning was, they had so much to do. Well, of course, anyone who ever lived on a dairy or farm knows the work is never done. So, they did send him home and for the rest of the summer, everything worked out there. Limbo couldn’t go with Butch to work so he stayed at our place and got into all kinds of trouble. He was one of the smartest dogs I have ever seen and also one of the dumbest. During the day, I would make the dog stay outside as we never had animals in the house. Well, Limbo didn’t have any problem minding me when Butch was gone. But the minute Butch came home, the dog completely ignored me and did what he dog gone pleased. Just to say, “You’re not my boss!”. Limbo was a handsome dog, blood red in color, chocolate eyes, and a short tail that stuck straight up in the air. And he had that instinct to want to point when he found a bird. One of his favorite things to do was to run and bark at the beef cows when they came into drink. They would scatter when he put on his act. One day this all changed as the cows started calving. When Limbo ran out to scare them, one old cow turned on him, kicked him in the jaw, surprised the heck out of that dog, and scared the living daylights out of him. He howled like he was dead and ran toward the house, catching his tail on the hot wire when he went under it. More yelping and faster speed. I got to observe all of this, it only took a few seconds for all of this to happen. I had to laugh at this as the dog ran toward me for protection. I had to tell him I was sorry he got hurt. He seemed to respect me more after that and I actually had nothing to do with it. He wasn’t hurt, but he thought he was. One of my favorite things to do was to chase the birds and he was rather destructive in the garden. He would jump high in the air at the birds and come down on a tomato plant or something else. And you would see the grain waving out in the field and there was no wind, it was that dam dog chasing birds. We hauled hay bales on a flatbed trailer pulled by a tractor and would usually put it in road gear going to the field to get a load. We had a water spaniel dog that loved to ride along so of course Limbo would do the same. Our dog’s name was Bozo. When Bozo would pick up a scent of a pheasant or grouse, he would jump from the trailer. Limbo would follow suit, always landing on his chin and face in the gravel road. Plowing a a furrow before he got stopped. Funny about that, Limbo never did master getting off the wagon like our dog did. It must have frustrated him as he sure acted like it. We got many a laugh watching this dog try to adjust to country life. One morning early, Butch came into our bedroom and said, he was leaving Limbo in the house when he left because the dog wanted to follow him. So we said Okay. About 30 minutes later, Bob got up and turned him outside as he was making so much racket in the house. Then 30 minutes later, Butch showed up again with the dog. He brought him home as the dog found him again. This time Bob told Butch to lock him inside the pickup and we would turn him out when we got up. So that was taken care of. When we went out to let Limbo out of the pickup, the dog had torn all the cushions up. There wasn’t a piece of material left to sit on. Unbelievable. The springs were bare of any fabric. I thought the dog was a dumb dog, but he wasn’t. He really was smart, just not farm smart. Just the wrong element for him on the farm. He soon learned how to stick his paw in the screen door to come into the house when he wanted. By late summer, we just more or less let him do what he wanted. He was taking on an education that was nothing like living in a big city. When it came time for school to start, Butch and Limbo had to go back to town, to say we missed them is an understatement. It was like sending two of your kids away. All of that to say – we will miss you Big Brother! My last visit with you was in 2017 at the 50 Year PBC Reunion when you were the first one, I would see in the parking lot the night when I got out of my car. I love reunions and I look forward to the one in heaven when we will meet again.