Attribution: USFWS Mountain Prairie, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, is unable to restrain leakage from the keeper’s memory bag: “On rainy summer days when the haymows were full and the corn was nearly at its knee-high-by-the 4th goal, the farmers went fishing. “They tied cane poles to the sides …
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Category:Family
Kickass and Woodman’s Calamity
Attritbution: Corey Coyle, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that neither the keeper nor Phyllis were anywhere near the Woodman’s grocery store when the roof fell in, creating an impressive waterfall over the produce department and giving several customers wet feet and presumably damp apples and bananas. News of …
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Kickass and River Remembering
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports on some of the keeper’s gang “gathering at the river” on yet another attempt at standardizing clan memories while soaking up warm sunshine and listening to the birds. It is, of course, common that when families get together for “remembering” excesses, there are …
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Kickass and a Fishing Lie
Attribution: Photo by Jed Owen on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper in this age of lies and more lies, recalls “The Good Lie,” which was the title of a story of his that appeared in the June 1993 issue of Sports Afield magazine. It was about an old man–Ben Lusby and …
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Happy 2025 Father’s Day from the Pen in Hand
Happy Father’s Day!! Photo by Kris Carter
Kickass and Birthday Parade
Photo by Phyllis Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper is happy with the birthday celebration and parade over the weekend. He wished a very happy 90th birthday to his brother Orville at the lunch party that included their 91-year-old sister Norma and Orv’s daughter Lea. And then later there was a …
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Kickass and Things Go Wrong
Photo by Matthew Alexander on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports on the keeper’s day of errors and suggests that perhaps trying to coordinate his treatment at the VA eye clinic with son Mike’s molar extraction on the far west side was simply too much to expect, particularly in light of past history when the …
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Kickass and Adventure Failure
Photos by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, listens as the keeper recounts his general failure as a great adventurer: There are more as the keeper did his best to find ways to stay out of various newspaper city rooms, and now he does not often bring up his adventure failures to …
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Kickass and Memorial Day 2025
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes that the keeper is still around on this Memorial Day to get his usual note off to the two I & R platoon mates who are NOT around and haven’t been since the artillery shell took them out the day after their squad …
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Kickass 5/19/25
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes how the keeper was reminded of the awesome burden of being an older brother by Taylor and Trevor at a recent gathering by the river. Citing his “older brother” experience with Orville, the keeper refrained from giving advice to Taylor, and only tried …
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Kickass and Four Sons
Photo by Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, noted the keeper’s delight with the recent posting by Becky W. of an old photo of him and his four sons at a long-ago rare moment when the sons were all lined up like innocent choir boys. The photo dates to the early 1960’s …
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Kickass Remembers Shirley
The Pen in Hand Blog featuring Bill Stokes
Photo by Bill Stokes