Thread bare, and faded, with the neck edges worn, yet he is still my favorite. Chief Grouch represents a time from another life. Created at the Cherokee Indian Trading Post in the Smokey Mountains, he has been my favorite for over thirty years. His time on this earth is short, and friends and relatives plead with me to end it, to part ways. How can I toss such a faithful sidekick into the trash heap? I know, I know, I look like a homeless person when I wear this beautiful Tee, but I don’t give a hoot, I love it. Chief Grouch and I have a history together.
The Chief represents a bike trip through Cades Cove and a vacation during a time when Barb and I were still young. Barb named him Chief Grouch. She knew he was a chief, and I was a grouch so it was a natural.
Over the years, people have stared into his eyes, and at his yellow Iris in wonder. No one has ever dared ask me why I wear the Chief, but I can tell by the expressions on their faces, that they want to know. I’m not sure I ever had a good reason, except to say we are brothers. We share the same deep, intense look of bewilderment, yet we have inner beauty like the Iris.
Chief Grouch on his final walk to see the sunset into the lake.
Yes good friend, it is time for us to part. I will not subject you to another cleansing ritual to endure the swish-swashing in suds, with the last whirling dervish flinging the water from your weave, but rather to join the braves of your tribe in the Happy Hunting Ground.
do na da’ go hv i o gi na li
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Filed under: Biography, Characters I knew, family, Sports | Tagged: Bicycling, Cades Cove, Cherokee, Great Smoky Mountains | Leave a comment »
