Grandma's Parrot

Saying for the Day: Don't trust a Parrot to keep a secret.

This is a story about my Grandmother Leda.
Grandmother Leda had a parrot. Now this was not one of those little parakeets that people often buy today. No sir! This was a genuine parrot with a large vocabulary , all in Finnish.
It knew the names of the four Linna children and which name belonged to which child.
It also was rumored to have psychic abilities.

The family lived upstairs of a boarding house and to reach the family entry point, which was the kitchen, one had to go up a long flight of stairs. Now here is where the parrots psychic ability entered in.

The moment one of the children put his or her foot on the bottom stair the parrot would call out the child’s name. From where the parrot sat the steps could not be seen and mostly what you heard was street noise. But one has to admit that even a man with truly sharp hearing would have trouble identifying somebody from the sound of a foot on a step.

Now if this was the entire story it would still be a special parrot but there is one more event. Often an old Finnish lady came to visit Leda. Grandma didn’t like this lady and said some rather mean things about her after she left.

A few days later the parrot said, in Finnish, “ Old lady coming” and then said everything Gram had said. About a minute later the downstairs door opened and in came the old lady. The parrot said nothing.
Always after that when the old lady reached the edge of the sidewalk our parrot would announce her so Gram was always ready. Nobody could ever explain how the parrot knew it was the old lady before she got to the door.

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News of Pigeon Falls– I met the milk train this morning at 8:00 down at the Pigeon Falls station. Pastor Marvel was there on the platform. He picked up this guy wearing a big heavy looking cross around his neck. I assumed it was the retired Bishop and that Pastor Marvel was taking him out to look at his newly purchased house. Pastors get stuck with the worst of jobs.
According to Nancy his name is Bishop Thadeus Westemen . He’s a retired Lutheran Bishop and very liberal. ( He gets his inspiration from sociology rather than Scripture) He is supposed to be married but there was no wife with him this morning. I guess she’s coming later.( A little room for gossip there.)
Mrs. Trumble is at it again. She swears that she saw the white rabbit behind her house this morning. It had six inch claws that were dripping with blood. Nancy thinks she drank too much rheumatism medicine. ( If nobody else sees it we’ll ignore it) For those of you that weren't with us last year the White Rabbit is one of the unsolved mysteries of Pigeon Falls. There were numerous sightings of a white rabbit that was a little over two feet tall, stood upright, and winked at people. It wore a pink sweater and often carried a little chicken. Mrs Trumble is the only one that saw fangs and claws.
Toivo and Eino’s new garage has a solar paneled roof that on a sunny day provides all the power the garage needs. Just think a little town like Pigeon Falls is right out there on the edge of technology.
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It rained off and on today. My sister called and she's going out to camp. When it wasn't raining we got the new garden layed out. Betty changed her mind several times but I think she now knows what she wants. I did some work on the computer and got the first of the track wiring ready to go. Betty and I did the soldering . Nobody in their right mind would ever ask us to solder anything. Betty also planted some flowers. My daughter called and the procedure on her hand seemed to have gine very well. She certainly sounded happy when she called. Well I need a breathing treatment.
GBYA