Alligator Tales

I had some of the craziest dreams last night.  This has been going on for several days.  I am pretty sure it has something to do with the DVD I had made from my parents old 8mm films.  Last nights dreams were all about my uncle and his wife who lived at the edge of a canal in South Florida with a fenced in yard on all sides except  where the canal joined the back of their property.  These were the only real relatives I had in Flolrida when I was growing up (Oh I had a ton of adopted uncles, aunts, grandparents).   I have many wonderful memories of bar-be-ques, roller-derby, egg hunts, and Christmases at their house.  One such memory involves their dog, Chico, a ton of bbq, and the canal.  It was a typical South Florida day...you know the kind....muggy, smokey (the Everglades were burning), hotter than blue blazes.  We arrived at their house mid-morning and the men gathered out back and roasted meat on the grill, like men do.  My father was an excellent cook and should have been an award winning grillmaster.  That man could make meat on a grill do whatever he wanted it to.  So with the guys outside the ladies would gather in the kitchen and get the rest of the meal ready.  My mom made the best banana pudding (and my uncle always requested she bring it to whatever function we were having), my aunt would put together her famous potato salad, and the rest of the women filled in the menu with whatever special dish they brought. As a child my least favorite dish was always the green congealed salad with celery, apples, and nuts and the nasty mayonaise topping.  (I would be delighted several years down the road when watergate salad would come about),   Around lunch time the meat was brought in and placed on their large dining room table along with all the sides that had been waiting patiently in the refrigerator or counter.  There would always be a prayer and the ravenous bunch would descend on this spread like buzzards on road kill.  The food was plentiful and if you were hungry when you left....it was your fault.  I digress...sorry.  All of a sudden we heard a thumping noise.  Everyone looked around and no one saw anything out of the ordinary.....when there it went again....this time louder.  The adults got up and walked around the house looking for the source of the sound.....NOTHING!  Once again the sound happened...this time my uncle pulled the curtain to the back yard back and there.....feverishly slamming his little body against the sliding glass doors,terrified,  trying his best to get inside the house, was Chico.....and there....with his mouth open wide and almost upon the tiny little dog was a 6 ft alligator that had been swimming by and decided that Chico looked like a great appetizer.  In the blink of an eye my uncle slid the door open slightly, the dog shot in the house and went straight under the bed in their bedroom, and the alligator bumped the sliding glass door, turned and retreated to the canal.  As the  alligator slid across the ground he would stop every few feet and look at the house.....it was almost as if he was issuing a return warning to Chico....that there would be a next time.  Chico, on the other hand, was trembling under the far corner of the bed, and would NEVER go out back again.  He would go out the front door....but never the back.  Poor little Chico.  I have to admit that bbq's in my family are never drama free.  This one was just the drama of one tiny and terrified little Chihuahua.