Attribution: Emanuel Leutze, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
By Bill Stokes
Kickass, the doorstop dog, in this time of celebrating the USA’s birthday, honors the keeper’s claim for the stage to reflect on the 200th birthday back in 1976 when he spent several weeks on a fascinating tour of meaningful historic sites for a series of articles for the Milwaukee Journal.
From the opportunity to crawl up into the tower of the North Church to marching in a small-town Virginia parade, it was a never-ending rare experience. As he stopped one afternoon in a park at the point where Washington had crossed the Delaware River, an unoccupied motorboat came down the river doing tight, high-speed circles, and suddenly there was a chorus of sirens and the park erupted with emergency vehicles and scurrying emergency personnel.
Two fishermen had fallen out of their boat upstream. One survived and one didn’t it turned out; and the unfortunate occurrence gave the keeper a story lead and an opportunity to comment about the risk of standing up in the boat as Washington is portrayed in the famous painting of his crossing.
That article series was reprinted in pamphlet form by the Journal and offered to the public, and the keeper once had a copy but now can’t find it. He will ask Phyllis about it. She knows about birthdays and things like that and she would never stand up in a fishing boat!
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