Of my pet gator and toilet paper...

When I was a kid, I often dreamt it would be just so divinely cool to have a pet alligator. Like many deep thinkers, I knew for a certainty that our tub would be a great place to keep it, at least until the beastie got as long as I was tall. After all, the tub fit me just fine, and in all the stories I’d read, other people who had gators kept theirs in tubs! Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, I never realized this dream, and indeed, once I read my first book about water creatures, and soon after saw Jaws, I decided a pet that liked to use its teeth would not necessarily be the most desirable companion.

Like I said, I was a kid.

I don’t know how many times I expressed this to my parents. I recall Dad laughing at the notion once, while Mom simply smiled while doubting I could ever train the reptile to do anything. She was certain I couldn’t take it on a walk, no matter how I envisioned this. But she did think enough of the idea, or my love of the idea, to get me a rubber representation of this most favored of surviving dinosaurs, and me being me, I hung on to that over the years, until the time came to share that dream with my daughters. They loved the bouncy little green rascal, never afraid of those long white teeth that latched onto any finger stuck into its deep mouth.

I rediscovered the critter in 2016 as I finally broke down and sorted through a box of belongings left in Mom and Dad’s attic. If my memory serves me here, and there’s no reason to think it doesn’t, this toy remains much the same as it did when mom first gave it to me, except for the missing tip of its tail, which a beloved neighbor child managed to pull off after the girls took the pet under their care. Not knowing what to do with the gator, unwilling to throw it away, I returned it to storage until I got home. But on March 18, 2017, spurred by a new idea, I decided the tub was the perfect place to let that gator rest.

And just that simply, I realized another dream.

My tub gator

On a related note:

On March 18, 2019, Kirby Lee Davis, the intrepid explorer who moves on average of once every decade or so, officially placed the first roll of toilet paper at his new abode. He begs forgiveness to all for not posting this live for all to experience, and for not sending out invitations and rolling out the red carpet for a stupendous gala celebrating this momentous occasion, or for not tweeting the importance of the roll and the way it's positioned. To be fair, he thought this photo would transcribe for all the all-so-important truth of that last point and hopefully settle for one and all the answer to this timeless question. He leaves it for you to guess the brand.