Dad & Ol' Thunder

When my Dad was a boy for a time he raised Homing Pigeons.  He never had them do any cross-country flights.  He just kept them in a coop in backyard of the house on Air Street and took care of them with food and water.

I’m not sure how many he had, but one was a large male he called Ol’ Thunder.



This is about how Dad described Ol' Thunder

 It might seem barely credible, but Dad could easily recognize Ol’ Thunder, even from a distance.  Dad explained that while Ol’ Thunder’s basic dark grey/light grey feathering was pretty common, “There was something about the way he looked that I could just recognize.  I couldn’t explain to anyone else how to tell him from the other pigeons, but he was unique to me.”

Dad said that sometimes Ol’ Thunder would follow him around the neighborhood.  “I’d see him on a branch outside school, then later in the day he’d be on the telephone wire by our baseball field.  But he came home every night.”

At least once, Dad told me, he and his Mom took the bus downtown and Dad saw him on a building ledge near the store they visited.