Photo by Bill Stokes
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper’s clan today as it celebrates the birthday of patriarch T. J. Stokes who, if he were still with us, would be 141 years old.
Party arrangements and appropriate photo are provided by cousin Pat Turgeson , with fragmentary memories of Grandpa T. J. (Thomas Jefferson) Stokes by the keeper. Those memories include an image of Grandpa T.J. flat on his back in the sand at the bottom of a very large playground slide at a Chippewa Falls park. Grandpa T.J.. is laughing as a covey of aunts gasp and shake their heads at his age-defying antics.
Grandpa T.J. loved horses, and he loved dealing and trading in them at the height of their cultural significance, and he could expertly tell the age and condition of a horse by inspecting its teeth. Word was, according to passed down stories, that horse trading with T.J. meant risking your shirt if not your pants.
Happy birthday, Grandpa, and wherever you might be in the hereafter parade, we all hope you remembered to use your expertise in checking out the teeth of the deal before you closed it.
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