Sunday, January 16, 2022

The House cat...

 My local paper, The Post and Courier, has a Sunday feature called MY PHOTO where a submitted picture is selected that best illustrates the weekly stated theme or title.

I was telling a buddy about a replica dollhouse I had built back in the 1970s when I was the Missouri Director of Tourism and had moved my family from Kansas City to the Capital.

No, it is was not a move to St. Louis on the other side of the Show-Me state. It was to Jefferson City, smack dab in the middle of the state, close to the geographical center of the United States.

After being selected, I had gone ahead to Jeff City to look at houses, really liked one and my wife flew in and loved it. Whew!

I wanted a place where I would be comfortable having the Governor stop by. Actually, I later found that the Mayor lived on the same street! Quick snow removal would be assured for my block!

As we settled in, I was really liking the look of our new 2-story home and decided to build a replica dollhouse for my younger daughter. 

Hey, I had never done this before but I just was copying something... and it only had three sides! Piece of cake.

And it really was not that hard. I made the second floor a pull-out so my daughter could play with the entire model. I even produced a HOW TO brochure showing the easy-to-follow steps I had taken and offered it for sale. 

(Only got two buyers even though my research showed dollhouses were a popular item. Hmm, making one apparently was not that popular!)

Naturally, I took many photos as I progressed building my duplicate miniature home. One day I saw that our black cat had curled up for a nap in the dollhouse living room - and oozing into most of the downstairs!

The theme for the next week's MY PHOTO newspaper Sunday "contest"  was "OUT OF PLACE."Well, I was flashing back to my house cat photo and I made sure I submitted it right away.

The editor may not be as taken as I was about matching the theme...but I feel optimistic. 

However, if I do score a third win, this would identify me in my new home.

My first two wins were while I was living in Hanahan. This way my new neighbors will see I am proud to now live in our neat gated community in North Charleston.