I can't get the thought of "Raccoon Pie" out of my head--it brings back some memories, let me tell you--oh, not the pie--bleck!
No, I'm remembering the raccoon's around our house, when I was a youngster.
My sister, ah...she was always street smart--which is saying something, as we grew up on a quiet dead-end street.
And I do mean, QUIET. It was bordered on the north by fields and the Catholic cemetery (there were three, all told in our area, all joined together, St. Agnes, Albany Rural, and Beth Empth, encompassing approx. 500 acres.) Our street was bordered on the east by more cemetery, a huge vacant lot (now a cemetery), and the Delaware and Hudson rail tracks. On the South, it was borded by State Route 378--built up onto a steep hill--the "hill" being virtually more like a wall of grass, rising out of the valley, with a four-lane divided highway on top of it--which pretty much cut us off from the rest of the village proper. To the west--more fields and trees--and a few of homes of the local "old money."
Anyway, early on, sis developed this street-tough attitude. Which is odd, but,then sis is a bit...odd. She likes Rush Limbaugh and kisses the ground George W. Bush walks on--need I say more? She started a big grass fire at 11, ran away from home--was gone nearly a year-- at 12, dropped out of school at 14, had her first baby at 14, got married at 17, divorced at 19, hit the road with a trucker at 20...and the list goes on...a couple of years back, she got mad at her partner and fired a gun into the caravan where they were living--he wasn't home at the time, but she was arrested , anyway. When she drove a cab, she argued with a robber and got knifed, and one time mum and I took her and my then 5 year old nephew out for the day to a zoo, and sis had crack withdrawls on the way home, and tried to beat me up (one time she succeeded) and then, tried to jump out of the car while I was driving it down a mountain road--taking her son with her--sis was..and in some small way, still is...a trip and a half.
Why am I mentioning all this, you are wondering, perhaps...and what does all this have to do with raccoons?
Well, one time, we were all sitting 'round the living room, one summer night. I'd just taken out the garbage (rubbish), when I heard a bang, coming from outside, around our mailbox down by the road. Well, I wasn't going out there! (I was a big coward, as a kid.) So, sis was ordered by my dad to check it out. She went down there--one can was tipped over. Sis bent over to righten it--and let out the biggest shriek, I've ever heard a girl give--it was a bit like Mel, the 7th Doctor's companion--a realy girly terror scream--straight out of a sci-fi movie! I think she broke the land-speed record, bolting back into the house! Seems she bent over to pick up the garbage--and a huge raccoon popped its head out at here!
Now, unless they're rapid, raccoons are mostly harmless--highly curious, but sort of friendly-I mean, they're kind of laid back and mellow, really, so they aren't usually aggressive.
Now me, I'm nature-girl, the tree-hugger. I've gotten muddy, stuck with burrs, snowed on, rained on, whatever. I've spent hours observing birds and wildlife and such. I've had my surprises over the years--sudden flights of birds--great blue heron, pheasant--very startling!, fox, coyote, in Yellowstone--moose, buffalo, bull elk. So, yeah, it can startle you--but really, don't think I ever screamed like a little girl. Well, maybe with the moose--that really was a close shave, that time...as in a really could have been killed, close.
Anyway, now that sis is living on top of a mountain in Vermont---she's all, "gee whiz" about animals. And I humor her--but I've been "gee whiz" about that stuff, for about 40 years or so--seems weird, to hear my citified sister casually talk about the black bear that hangs out near her driveway, teasing her five dogs chained up in the yard. Still, she refuses to go out there whenever there's a wild animal around--she stays inside a lot. And she HATES the raccoons!
