Attribution: markbyzewski, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, under the impression that the keeper had a memory for all occasions, is disappointed that he has no specific recall of Oct. 11, 1940, a day that began with warm shirtsleeve weather and turned into a vicious blizzard across the upper Midwest, killing more than 250 people, including many Wisconsin duck hunters caught out on the Mississippi River.
The keeper, as a nine-year-old farm kid that fateful day, obviously retreated to the protection of the house and probably huddled behind the stove with his brother and sister. But he has no specific recollection of doing so, and this disappoints him: what kind of a memory system recalls the names of individual cows or the cooing of barn pigeons but fails at remembering the awful day that transitioned from summer to winter!
Obviously it is the same questionable memory system that now motivates Phyllis to frequently say, “Don’t you remember my telling you……..”
The keeper will be attempting to find solace “behind the stove” on this Armistice Day as he tries to remember what happened back in 1940 and what Phyllis told him yesterday.
