This afternoon, my dogs and I visited Barnes & Noble, the one that is closing in Georgetown, that I wrote about, begging for support a couple of days ago. A little girl approached Little River, cute bichon, and when he barked, she emitted a piercing, high-pitched scream, that reverberated in near- empty store. The manager came over to us, and told them that we would have to leave immediately, because dogs were menaces to children. My shy little pup barks — that’s what dogs do — bark –, but he has never bitten or even snapped at a person or thing, in his life. It does not follow, that a bark means that a bite is coming. At this bookstore, where the store clerks know the dog-regulars’ names, I have been told that customers who bring their dogs, are among the store’s most-buying and most regular buying big book spenders. . When the little girl screamed when River barked at her, because she invaded his space, her parents loudly said that the dog should be better controlled. I gathered that the incident of River barking that caused the girl’s screaming, has resulted in the banning of all dogs from this Barnes & Noble. The bookstore is closing, so this fight is not worth it… This does, however, broach the larger issue: should or should not our pets be more integrated into our everyday lives and spaces, as they are in Paris, and other European cities, and Chicago, judged to be one of the most dog-friendly US cities? Our dogs are our family members. 2010 US Census Bureau Stats confirm that more than 50% of American households have at least one dog and or cat…. When my son was little, and had temper-tantrums in public places, like this very Barnes & Noble (when he wasn’t called on first, during story hour in kids’ book section), it was not demanded that he leave. It seems that dogs should be permitted in bookstores, and place of commerce, not restaurants. More importantly, given the numbers of dogs in the US, it seems imperative that parents teach their children to respect and not fear animals, to ask first if they can be petted, and respect that people talk and dogs bark…
About John
About John
John Bolinger was born and raised in Northwest Indiana, where he attended Ball State University and Purdue University, receiving his BS and MA from those schools. Then he taught English and French for thirty-five years at Morton High School in Hammond, Indiana before moving to Colorado, where he resided for ten years before moving to Florida. Besides COME SEPTEMBER, Journey of a High School Teacher, John's other books are ALL MY LAZY RIVERS, an Indiana Childhood, and COME ON, FLUFFY, THIS AIN'T NO BALLET, a Novel on Coming of Age, all available on Amazon.com as paperbacks and Kindle books. Alternately funny and touching, COME SEPTEMBER, conveys the story of every high school teacher’s struggle to enlighten both himself and his pupils, encountering along the way, battles with colleagues, administrators, and parents through a parade of characters that include a freshman boy for whom the faculty code name is “Spawn of Satan,” to a senior girl whose water breaks during a pop-quiz over THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS. Through social change and the relentless march of technology, the human element remains constant in the book’s personal, entertaining, and sympathetic portraits of faculty, students, parents, and others. The audience for this book will certainly include school teachers everywhere, teenagers, parents of teens, as well as anyone who appreciates that blend of humor and pathos with which the world of public education is drenched. The drive of the story is the narrator's struggle to become the best teacher he can be. The book is filled with advice for young teachers based upon experience of the writer, advice that will never be found in college methods classes.
Another of John's recent books is Mum's the Word: Secrets of a Family. It is the story of his alcoholic father and the family's efforts to deal with or hide the fact. Though a serious treatment of the horrors of alcoholism, the book also entertains in its descriptions of the father during his best times and the humor of the family's attempts to create a façade for the outside world. All John's books are available as paperbacks and Kindle readers on Amazon, and also as paperbacks at Barnes & Noble. John's sixth book is, Growing Old in America: Notes from a Codger was released on June 15, 2014. John’s most recent book is a novel titled Resisting Gravity, A Ghost Story, published the summer of 2018
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