Kickass Remembers Grocery Shopping by Bill Stokes

Attribution: Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

By Bill Stokes

Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper remembers a grocery shopping trip with his mother as follows:

Park in the Barron, WI. back alley and lug the crate of fresh eggs in through the back door where grocer Harry Meyers checked them over and then took his place behind the counter where mom stood reading off her list and Harry, a small, bald man, scurried about the store to collect each item. It was ritualistic that Harry acknowledged the keeper’s presence with a pinch to the cheek and later a small bag of candy when it was settle-up time.

One depression year, prior to the keeper’s memory, Harry Meyers let the grocery bill slide until spring when Dad finally found work digging ditches. That circumstance became etched in family lore and it is still there—the wonderful little Jewish man goes with the keeper every time Phyllis takes him grocery shopping. Harry rides in the cart with the keeper’s walking stick and sometimes he pinches the keeper’s cheek when they are near the candy aisle.