French Sabbatical

Day 186 (2 January 2011) – Pony Stories

The horse racing season resumed today at the racetrack near our house. I casually mentioned this earlier today, after Dwight, Michele, Melinda and I had a delightful brunch at Annabelle’s. Dwight expressed interest in seeing a race or two, something I was only too eager to provide. So just as the sun came peaking through the clouds this afternoon, Dwight and I walked over to the track and caught the last two races. It was trotters today, something I learned was of interest to Dwight. He told me that when the girls were young his family acquired a pony that was stabled on an island near Seattle. Dwight always had the idea of building a little sulky for the pony to pull. So as we exited the track after the last race, we were excited to be able to examine a couple of sulkies that had just been used in the races. Now that pony is long gone, but perhaps Brenda & Melinda will still get the surprise of a homemade sulky. I wouldn’t put it past Dwight.

On the subject of the Shaw family and their pony, Dwight shared with me a great story of the pony taking off with Brenda on its back. Apparently it wanted Brenda off its back and tried running under a low doorway to remove her. She was smart enough to lay flat but Dwight still chuckles at his recollection of her calling for him. Ah, parenting.

One more unrelated thing about today. Dwight took all of us and the Boudeau family out for dinner tonight, 10 of us. We had a delicious galette & crêpe dinner and were able to all sit together. It was lovely, and part of the goodbye process for Dwight and Michele who leave Nantes on Tuesday.

January 2, 2011 - Posted by Andy Smallman | Uncategorized | French Sabbatical