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Atticus

(15,124 posts)
Thu May 21, 2020, 05:14 PM May 2020

For several springs when I was a youngster, a couple of my neighborhood friends and I

would spend an afternoon in May scouting for mourning dove nests in the woods along a small creek at the edge of our small hometown. Doves construct a very rudimentary nest. It is basically just a handful of twigs and is nearly flat. Usually, just two white eggs were deposited in it.

We were careful not to touch or disturb the nest when we spotted one. Over the following three weeks or so, we'd check on them regularly until they hatched and it was just totally "neat" to watch "our" doves fledge and eventually leave the nest.

Then, one spring we noticed "Billy" following us as we checked on the nests. He was a year younger and known to have a hot temper. We avoided him as much as possible, but now he was trailing us, which seemed suspicious.

Sure enough, when we back-tracked and revisited the nests we'd just checked, all were now empty and the developing eggs smashed to the ground and stepped on. We chased him all the way to his house where his mother told us to "git" and to quit pestering her Billy.

A couple of years later, many were mortified when it was discovered that Billy had run an entire litter of beagle puppies through the wringer of his mom's Maytag.

A few years after that, I had to intervene to prevent him from continuing to slap his girlfriend around on a public parking lot.

I am not contending that Billy's family was representative, but they were the only Republicans in our neighborhood and, rightly or wrongly, reinforced my budding conviction that Republicans weren't "nice people". That conviction has never dissipated.

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For several springs when I was a youngster, a couple of my neighborhood friends and I (Original Post) Atticus May 2020 OP
Let me guess. smirkymonkey May 2020 #1
No, last I heard, he was---wait fot it---a butcher! (Really) nt Atticus May 2020 #4
Yikes! smirkymonkey May 2020 #7
He Faux pas May 2020 #2
Is Billy in jail yet? Totally Tunsie May 2020 #3
Not that I am aware of. He'd be closing in on 70 now and, hopefully, Atticus May 2020 #5
That is just so sad...... a kennedy May 2020 #6
Billy still needs his azz kicked. StocktonNative May 2020 #8
Did he also start fires and wet the bed into his teen years? tclambert May 2020 #9
In my meager experience, at least..... DFW May 2020 #10
A story about a liar & looser...from my high school days.. Stuart G May 2020 #11
I grew up with a "Billy"... Mazeltov Cocktail May 2020 #12
It's amazing to me... NurseJackie May 2020 #13
The doves probably laugh at the other birds StarryNite May 2020 #14
LOL NurseJackie May 2020 #15

Atticus

(15,124 posts)
5. Not that I am aware of. He'd be closing in on 70 now and, hopefully,
Thu May 21, 2020, 06:39 PM
May 2020

has mellowed a little. I hope so.

a kennedy

(29,467 posts)
6. That is just so sad......
Thu May 21, 2020, 06:48 PM
May 2020

we had a dove platform and we’d laugh at the “nest” she’d build.......a couple of crossed sticks. One year she had 5 broods. FIVE Broods!!!! They are one of my favorite birds......love the doves. But I do laugh at their nests....a few twigs.

StocktonNative

(120 posts)
8. Billy still needs his azz kicked.
Fri May 22, 2020, 11:17 PM
May 2020

I'm sure he flies the Stars and Bars to protest how much we Libtards love America!

tclambert

(11,080 posts)
9. Did he also start fires and wet the bed into his teen years?
Sat May 23, 2020, 03:57 AM
May 2020

Sure, I know some call the McDonald triad an urban legend. Others argue that these issues are more symptoms of the underlying cause for sociopathy, and may be correlated enough to act as indicators.

The wetting the bed part I don't get. Maybe it comes from poor impulse control? But starting fires and killing small animals do tend to go along with not respecting property or life. Many serial killers started out killing small animals, then moved on to larger animals.

DFW

(54,055 posts)
10. In my meager experience, at least.....
Sat May 23, 2020, 04:06 AM
May 2020

Not all Republicans tend to be that bad, BUT.........

People that bad DO tend to be Republicans.

Stuart G

(38,365 posts)
11. A story about a liar & looser...from my high school days..
Sat May 23, 2020, 09:19 PM
May 2020

..There was this fellow who lied and exaggerated everything. He made things up, said this and that and that was his reputation....
..On this particular day, November 22, he was screaming..Kennedy was shot, Kennedy was shot..Somehow, even though I thought he was lying...for a moment, I couldn't believe that he would make that up..He was the first person who told me about it.

Mazeltov Cocktail

(569 posts)
12. I grew up with a "Billy"...
Sun May 24, 2020, 08:42 AM
May 2020

Only his family were ( wait for it...) Evangelicals... Church of God, Mountain Assembly...if you feel like time traveling, go to one of their services, speaking in tongues and crawling or lying prostrate on the ground vibrating, kept waiting to be handed a snake.

" Billy" took a bunch of qualudes and sucked on an exhaust pipe when he was 17.

NurseJackie

(42,862 posts)
13. It's amazing to me...
Sun May 24, 2020, 03:33 PM
May 2020
It is basically just a handful of twigs and is nearly flat. Usually, just two white eggs were deposited in it.
It's barely a nest at all. They just phone it in. It's amazing to me that they continue to exist as a species.
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