Attribution: Photo by Galina Nelyubova on Unsplash By Geoff Carter A couple weeks ago, some old college buddies and I got together to go to our annual Brewers’ game outing. We keep in touch mostly because we exchange emails that inevitably spiral into discussions about politics, sports, and other sundry subjects, but we’ve known each other for decades. …
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Category:Memories
Kickass and Free Fun of D-Day
Attribution: National Archives and Records Administration, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, notes the keeper and Phyllis’s acknowledgment of this June 6 as yet another “D-Day” slowly disappearing into the cultural topsoil. It’s assimilation is aided today by such things as the DNR’s promotion of free “fun days” when …
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Kickass and Grandpa’s Long Underwear
Attribution: Photo by Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper making the switch from winter to summer shirts, which means short sleeves and bare arms for the next four months or so. The move equates to the critters shedding their winter coats and the birds showing …
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Kickass and Old Friend Roger
Photo courtesy of Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that the keeper received a 95th birthday notice from OLD friend Roger Locke, a fellow member of the Barron WI. High School class of 1949. The class was close to 100 in 1949 and may now be represented only by Roger and the …
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Kickass Remembers Michigan Platoon Mates
Photo courtesy of Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper and Phyllis participating with everyone in painful remembering on this day set aside just for that purpose with special ceremonies, followed by picnics in the parks, brats and beer, and baseball games. The keeper, as usual, remembers the two Michigan …
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Kickass and Ed Gein
Photo courtesy of Bill Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, celebrates with the keeper as he adds another photo to the collection from his newspaper days thanks to granddaughter Jessy, who was poking around on the net, and stumbled onto a courtroom scene of a1974 Ed Gein sanity hearing in Wautoma which the …
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Lost Soul
Illustration by Michael DiMilo By Geoff Carter “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.” –Roy Batty (Blade Runner) You may …
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Kickass and Cow Party
Attribution: Photo by Phyllis Stokes By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, joins the keeper in lamenting the demise of yet one more sign of spring—the “cow party” which was the day the cows, after a winter of standing in cramped stalls, were turned loose in the cow yard or pasture for an exercise opportunity. …
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Kickass and Double-Breasted Suit
Attribution: Marcus Kaiser 【 MqaTalk 】, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reminds the keeper of his responsibility in guiding the Easter style dress parade, an honor which he earned many years ago by purchasing the very last double-breasted men’s suit in the Midwest, maybe the entire country. Double …
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Kickass and Telephone Talk
Attribution: Photo by Marjan Blan on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, sympathizes with the keeper in his extreme telephone ineptness in this phone-saturated world that requires him to have a fulltime personal telephone operator—Phyllis, of course. It is the keeper’s sense that his phone difficulty began with his very first phone call when his mother …
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Kickass and the Outhouse Threat
Attribution: Lee Coursey from Decatur, GA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports that as the keeper reviews his life with emphasis on the events, like wars and accidents that might have ended it early on, he realizes he has not dealt with the real possibility that he could …
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Kickass and a Good Night’s Sleep
Attribution: Photo by mali desha on Unsplash By Bill Stokes Kickass, the doorstop dog, reports the keeper fresh from “a good night’s sleep,”–a much valued thing as the years pile on with their inclement weather notices that impact Phyllis’s sleep more than the keepers. The keepers “good night’s sleep” history begins with a bad night’s sleep when his …
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