Valentine’s Day 2001

Uncle Herman and the Dancing Skunk

     When I was in grade school my Uncle Herman came to live at the farm with Grandma Gaines, Mom, my brother George and me.  He left his beautiful but bitchy wife at his home in the nearby village of Broughton, Illinois, and his son John Franklin who was three years older than I was.  He didn’t believe in divorce but had to take a break from her.

     It was different having a man about the house, but of course he had things to do and wasn’t under foot all the time.  One day he went to visit Gram’s older sister who lived nearby and stayed to have supper.

     When Uncle came home it was dark but the moonlight was very bright.  He was coming through our woods near where I stepped on the water moccasin, when he saw something move in a bare spot ahead of him.  He stopped and stood very still.  In the moonlit bare spot in the trees a male skunk was dancing on his hind legs for his lady love who was hiding shyly in the underbrush.  It was springtime!

     After Uncle watched the male skunk perform his mating dance for a few minutes, he grew impatient and shot his pistol into the air so he could come home and tell us this story.

Dorothy A. P. McNeill