Attribution: Photo by Bill Stokes
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper as a first grandchild on his mother’s side relished all the perks that go with “first-grandchild” identity which included, back in the dark ages when he was born, a young mother keeping a detailed personal record of her newborn in a “baby book.”
Of course, as his 94th 9/11 birthday loomed at an early family party, the keeper’s baby book was the only documentary record of his beginning, and several family members remarked on some of its contents, like the keeper’s first word being “do” for dog. Mom went into great detail on some of the baby book pages but the one for “Baby’s Bright Sayings” is inexplicably totally blank.
The keeper interprets this as his mother being the first of many editors in his writing life and it also presents him with his earliest lesson on how to face a blank page under trying circumstances.
Maybe he will ask Phyllis if she knows of any “bright sayings” he could sneak into his baby book at this late date. She is also a “first grandchild” and will understand.
