Throw back thursday

I found some old photos and hope to do a few throw back post.

I am going to start with Frankie the dog.  Frankie was our community's first dog.  He was given to us by "outside John".  John was given the name "outside John" to by the children as a way to distinguish the man living in his truck in the parking lot from my husband Jon, who lived in the house.  "Outside John" was a bit of a trouble maker.  I remember the day I came home from work and he told me that he had just been to the Jimmy's John's downtown and that he ran out of that store with several bags of potato chips before they chased him out.  He also stole a lawn mower once from our neighbor in order to bless us by mowing our lawn. 

Outside John had been loitering in all kinds of church parking lots around the city and if he was kicked out by them he would write curses about them on his white truck.  Since our community was founded by many people who worked at the homeless shelter in Lincoln we welcomed this homeless man into our parking lot with open arms.  He set up his camp right outside my bedroom window, he would start his day by blaring music and yelling at his dog Frankie.  One morning I actually was woken up by a very very loud noise, when I looked out the window Outside John was standing there with a chain saw, ready to mount a ladder to trim some branches off a tree, "for us". 

One day, the police came by to talk to Outside John about one of his escapades and they began to ask him about his dog Frankie.  I think Outside John saw the writing on the wall and he quickly pointed to Grace and told the officers that she was Frankie's new owner....and so she was.  Then when she brought her daughter Samantha home from Bulgaria, Daniel became Frankie's owner, then when Frankie caused his final disaster in Daniel's place, he became the Schmeeckle's family dog....and he will forever remain their dog, as it was in this family that Frankie took his last breath.

Here's to you Frankie, you were one smart dog and the biggest lap dog I have ever seen.  You lived your life like a true adventurer, we were proud to be apart of your latter days.  thanks for taking us on so many walks, see you on the other side buddy.