Sodapop was our second official family pet that wasn’t a fish. I say official because if I remember correctly we, my sister and I, probably had stray dogs and cats we fed but weren’t allowed to keep. Our first pet was a domestic rabbit. He. or she, did not last long. He, or she, was raised in captivity and had never been outside. One day we took him outside. He got some kind of outside virus that animals get that he hadn’t developed natural immunity to and died.
I don’t know where Sodapop came from. The pound, humane society, a friend. I have no idea. Named by my sister for the Rob Lowe
character in the movie ‘The Outsiders’ (not the book version of Sodapop, the shirtless hot Rob Lowe version), Soda was a fun dog and we were all excited to have him at the house. I have no memories of him outside of the pictures I have of him. This was in the early 80s I believe and we didn’t have him long.
Sodapop did not like men and would attack any man who came into our house. He wasn’t very big but he could be vicious when set off. And by vicious I suppose I mean like a dog gets when it’s angry. He never broke skin but he did lung and jump on and growl. One day I came home from school and he was gone. My mom said a man came and took Soda to a farm to live. He’d be better off there with room to play and fewer people, etc. That was a sad day and we didn’t get another dog until after my senior year in high school when my parents split up and my mother got my younger brother a dog to help him cope. It didn’t.
My sister and I with Soda. I can’t tell exactly how old I am. I’m guessing I’m in middle school. She’s clearly in high school so this is probably winter of my freshman year. 
Soda in our backyard. The date in the right corner says March 1984. That makes me fifteen years old and a freshman in high school. People don’t really ‘put their dogs on a chain’ anymore. Back then that’s how it was done. 
Soda as a puppy. I believe that is me sitting off to the left (I recognize the shoes). The other dog belonged to the Barker family, who lived on our street. Shimba was his name maybe. He was a nice dog. Always dirty and smelly like the Barkers themselves. They didn’t bathe him more than they bathed themselves. We are in my Aunt Toots’ side yard. She lived down the street on the left. 
Soda with my sister on the sidewalk outside our home. Don’t know what she is going for here with the ‘chin resting on fist’ pose. I assume the shadow in the bottom left is of our mother taking the picture. To Soda’s left is the family car, a Ford Fairmont. in a long line of fairly crummy family cars – Chevy Nova, two Chevettes- the Fairmont was probably the worst. Two doors, of course, small and ugly. The Chevette’s were tanks that never stopped running and lasted into the mid 90s. The blue muscle car belonged to our neighbor Dave. He raced locally. Six cars are visible in this picture and all were made from steel. The porch in the middle left is my Aunt Toot’s. Above Soda is a basketball hoop our first neighbors father put up. 
Soda in Toot’s yard playing with another of the Barkers’ dogs. 
A close up of Soda in our backyard. 
Soda with the Barkers’ dog on Toots’ sidewalk. Me in the background? 
Soda and my sister in our backyard playing. Train tracks ran behind our backyard. Trains went by many times of the day and at all times, day or night. We got used to the noise eventually. Notice the lack of landscaping. Just a yard with grass. This changed dramatically after my father moved out. 
Soda with my mother. 
Soda and my sister. 
Soda and my brother. 
Was having trouble figuring out who this is in this picture with Soda. At first I thought it was dad because he wore shorts like that then I looked down and saw the sandals on the feet. So it’s my mother. They are standing next to the telephone pool with the basketball hoop. 
Soda, the Barkers’ dog, my cousin Ginny and her son Ronnie (I think) in Toot’s side yard.
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