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Thursday, June 30, 2011

Reminiscence: Dachshunds In China, Circa 1937


Meet pretty 'Gretel,' as she appeared in the June, 1972 edition of the American Dachshund magazine:

"These are pictures of a typical Dachshund as seen in Shanghai back in 1937," wrote Ethel Bigler of Studio city, California. 
A friend of James and Ethel Bigler recently unearthed the old photographs of Gretel.  The wicker table that Gretel is standing and sitting on was her post at all cocktail parties hosted by the Biglers' friends.
"Almost weekly we would go to her owners' home on Sunday morning and engage in a game of ping-pong on their roof.  When the ball would be overshot and go over the roof, Gretel would race down two flights of stairs and bark till the house boy would open the door for her.  Then she would race out, retrieve the ball, race back up the stairs and sit up to present the ball, but only to one of her owners."
"I've wondered if she and we weren't partially responsible for the Chinese challenge to our table tennis team.  In those olden days, it was one of our regular pastimes," concluded Mrs. Bigler.


Gretel's favorite position atop the wicker table where she greeted guests as they arrived for cocktail parties.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Carson - keep wondering - did u buy every remaining copy of American Dachshund magazine somewhere? Where? It is fascinating what u have. Or - are they all online somewhere??

Marene&Ali

Rowdy and Bette said...

Hey Marene,
A couple of issues come up maybe once a year on ebay, so try to keep an eye out for those. Got quite a few!

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