SOCIAL DISTANCING DAY 237. This is hanging over the mail table. It’s a promotional poster for my mom’s grandfather’s harness-making business, and this is her Lockdown Story from today: “Uncle Steve and the Alligator “Dad and Uncle Steve were partners in the Sproatt Brothers Grocery Store all through the Depression. They made a go of it despite the rigors of the time, but just made their livings. No more. “Their father, my much admired Grandpa, died shortly before the onset of W.W. II, leaving a successful small business that consisted of harness-making (obviously a fading career) and plumbing repair (a growing one). “Uncle Steve decided to leave the grocery and take over Grandpa’s harness-plumbing shop. He was unfazed by the fact he didn’t know how to make harness or do plumbing. By that time most harness just needed some repair, which he did know how to do, and there was an ample stock of plumbing fixtures he could sell to people who did know how to use them. “The shop was very cozy, especially in winter, when a pot-belly stove drew friends to chat and swap stories. It was also a good atmosphere for something else. “As I have mentioned before, most of our family are suckers for animals. At some time before I could remember, a relative had given my cousin Carl a baby alligator, a once-popular souvenir of Florida. In summer it lived in a small wire-covered concrete pond in Uncle Steve’s back yard. In winter, it lived in a washtub in the harness shop. Next to the stove. “I don’t know what they fed it or how they cared for it, but the little gator thrived. There came a time, however, when it stopped scrambling around in the washtub, and snout began to meet tail in a curve around the tub. “At that point, they told me, they donated it to a zoo. I think it’s the same zoo that gets all the missing pets—bunnies, kittens, puppies. Better not look into it too closely or ask to visit. “At any rate, the alligator moved on, and not long afterwards, Uncle Steve decided on another new career path.” #lockdownstories #harnessmaker #plumbingsupply #alligator #hanfordsbalsammyrrh #bickmoresgallcure #quarantinelife (at Noblesville, Indiana) https://www.instagram.com/p/CH9VQh5AiKn/?igshid=144qby67he2ah
