A Dog's Life

Last week I posted a picture of a pow-wow for the hearing impaired that took place in Olathe way back in the day. Blogger Dave (curator of the mouth-watering www.kclunchspots.com) was kind enough to point me toward a few other scintillating snapshots from Johnson County's colorful past, which he took part in cataloguing and uploading to JoCohistory.org as part of his job. Thanks to Dave for this, and credit for these photos goes to JocoHistory.org. The magic in these photos, however, belongs to us all. Here's a few highlights to start out with:

Fairway mayor's wife in multicolored housecoat with dog

Women shooting pool outside in the yard

Man with Overland Park pennant (a personal favorite)

Raw meat, wine, and a giant cleaver

The all-time greatest series, however, has to be that of Buddy the Deaf Dog.


His name is listed as Buddy the Deaf Dog, though "Debonaire" might be a more fitting description.


Buddy tickles the ivories at this School for the Deaf event, playing a boogie-woogie for the enjoyment of the ladies. Much like Beethoven, a hearing disability was not about to stop Buddy from symphonic composition or impromptu jam-sessions.


He also fought fires.


Smoked cigarettes...


...and cigars (pictured here with owner Bob Parker)


Buddy was also quite the scribe, penning upwards of 20 personal letters and post-cards per day to his many friends and confidantes on Broadway, in Hollywood or back in the pound. Buddy employed an unusual sideways method of penmanship that nonetheless produced a technically marvelous cursive.

Unfortunately little or none of his writing has survived to the current century, even in the annals of JocoHistory.org. However, a search did turn up a joint holiday postcard mailed out by Buddy and his master, Mr. Parker.


With that presentation, Buddy, Bob and I would like to wish you a happy, snappy afternoon. To wish you anything less would be, well...something of a boner.

See you dogs later.