Paw Prints TidBits for June

My dad had a great sense of humor. His initials were B.J. and when I and my sisters were teenagers we began calling him "Baby Joy". It always made him laugh and lift his eyebrows in the air. After I grew up and moved away, he emailed me almost every day and usually signed his emails with a row of x's and o's followed by the name "Daddio" (a nickname he'd given himself!). On several occasions, though, he'd sign using "Baby Joy" and I knew he was sitting at his computer with a big smile on his face and his eyebrows arched high above his eyes.

Our anecdote this month is about the Shawnee chief, Tecumseh and the slideshow contains some great quotes about fathers. The sidebar has a joke (of course). We wish all fathers a very happy Fathers Day.

If you have any comments or suggestions, don't hesitate to contact us.

Anecdote of the Month

Tecumseh (c. 1768–1813)

A n e c d o t e . . .

In 1810 William Henry Harrison, then governor of Indiana Territory, was negotiating with Tecumseh in order to try to prevent open hostilities. He ordered a chair to be brought for the Shawnee chief. The man who brought it said, "Your father, General Harrison, offers you a seat."

"My father!" Tecumseh exclaimed. "The sun is my father and the earth is my mother, and on her breast will I lie." Ignoring the chair, he stretched himself out on the ground.

B i o g r a p h i c a l . N o t e . . .

Chief of the American Shawnee Indians, Tecumseh organized an Indian confederacy to resist white encroachments. General (later President) William Henry Harrison defeated him at Tippecanoe (1811). Tecumseh was killed in the battle of the Thames River (1813), fighting on the British side in the War of 1812.

M o r e . I n f o r m a t i o n . . .

READ a short biography of Tecumseh.