Wednesday, December 31, 1997
After 90 days, dog is found
ALBANY - Buddy Smith, who lives in Memphis, Tenn., the home
of the blues, has his Rock back and is no longer singing the blues.
I am happy, too, because I get to end the year with a story that
has a happy ending.
Smith and Rock were the subjects of this column about five
weeks ago.
Rock, an orange and white, two year-old English setter, had
run away from Smith during a quail hunting training session on
the 4M Ranch near Albany in mid-September.
Smith was down in the dumps about it, because Rock was not
even his dog. A professional trainer, Smith was just training
Rock for another man. On top of that, Rock was a good student,
so to speak, and valuable.
So upset was Smith that he offered a tidy $2,500 reward, no
questions asked, to the person who found Rock.
Two weeks ago Rock was found. I wish the dog could talk and
tell us where he had been and what he had been doing during his
90 days of freedom, but he was thin, matted up, and hungry when
Greg Kornye of Albany came across him in Albany's downtown park.
Greg and Sunday Kornye did not think it was Rock, because he was
not wearing the collar that had been described in this column.
But after a few days the couple called 4M Ranch. Sure enough,
the dog was Rock and the elated Smith drove right out from Memphis
and picked up Rock and took him home.
Smith was more than willing to pay the $2,500 reward to Kornyes,
but the Kornyes refused the money. They, after all, had their
own dog and to them it was a member of the family and like a child.
"I don't think anybody ought to have to pay to get their
child back," Sunday Kornye said.
"Ken, the country is not full of people like her,"
Smith wrote to me, stating the obvious.
I am not in the Kornyes' category either. I represent, instead,
the sort of person who would have taken the money in a wink.
But I am glad that Rock is home and safe. And, instead of the
blues, maybe now Buddy Smith is singing a cheerful little "Rock"-n-roll
tune. Nuclear cook
DUBLIN - I was lured into Summers Family Market, a Dublin produce
store, a couple of weeks ago not by the thought of vegetables,
but by the smell and look of a pit barbecue out on the sidewalk
pouring out its savory aroma over the street.
Inside, a fellow who looked as though he enjoyed his own cooking
was slicing tender brisket for a customer. On the floor were stacks
of pumpkins, bushel baskets full of onions, potatoes, and unshelled
peanuts and pecans. The baskets shared the floor with a wood burning
stove, a couple of chairs, and a piano. On the wall was a stuffed
peacock. On the shelves were apples, oranges, and persimmons.
I once ate a persimmon, but have since neglected trying to
acquire a taste for them.
When it was my turn I ordered a barbecued brisket sandwich
and a Dr Pepper, the sugar sweetened kind that is bottled in Dublin.
The sandwich was good and so was the Dr Pepper. While I chewed,
the cook and owner, Mike Summers, 46, told me he was once a nuclear
design engineer. That was hard for me to swallow.
After I recovered, Summers said he worked on the development
of the Comanche Peak nuclear power plant at Glen Rose, the plant
that was built in the late 1970s.
"There is not much demand for nuclear design engineers
around here anymore," Summers said. "I would have had
to go to New York or the Middle East to do that. Instead, I decided
I would rather watch my kids grow up."
So now, Summers sells fresh vegetables and cooks barbecue.
He and his wife, Vicki, also own three Dublin day-care centers.
I asked Summers what was more difficult, being a nuclear design
engineer or making a good barbecue sandwich.
"To get it to taste just right, barbecue is harder,"
Summers said.
This column covers the cities and communities of this part
of West Texas. To contact Ken Ellsworth, call (800) 588-6397 or
(915) 676-6777, or write to P.O. Box 30, Abilene, TX 79604, or
send E-mail to regional@abinews.com.
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Copyright ©1997,
Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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