The Ekalaka Eagle - Your Community Builder

Hello,

I know some of my readers are suffering through the same thing I am. I am starting to forget stuff. I used to forget simple things. Things like ‘take the garbage out” or “swing by and pick up a gallon of milk”. But now it has been getting worse.

I’ve always been poor at names. I just nod and say “Hi”. Especially if you run into someone who shouldn’t be there. Like if you see someone from Bismarck at the grocery store, or maybe a bar, in Dickinson.

But lately it has been getting worse.

I forgot how to write. I can still type a little. And I can print a little. But I forgot how to write cursive. It just snuck up on me! And it hurt. It really hurt.

The news has carried a few stories about cursive writing lately. Some schools have quit teaching cursive writing. That bothered me. I never was a very good writer. My handwriting always sucked. But I tried. And over the past fifty years I haven’t written much. Oh, I wrote a few love letters to Shirley when I was in Fort Leonardwood. Well, a couple letters anyway. But since then the only handwriting I have done was most likely on check blanks. So my bad handwriting has turned into poor printing.

Last week I was at the feed store and I was going to write a check for a ton of calf feed. And I had secretly decided I would rebel and start writing cursive. But I couldn’t write an F! My mind was blank! I didn’t know F!

I stared at that check blank and a tear came to my eye. “I don’t know F”! The young lady looked at me strangely as I explained that they are not going to teach cursive writing anymore. And I can’t remember how to write the capital letter F. I challenged her to write it. She also struggled.

So I googled it. And in a few minutes I could kind of write it.

I went out to my pickup. The feed was loaded. I backed up, made a sharp left, and while writing the letter F in the dust on the dash of my pickup, I drove over 6 continuous fence panels that were stacked alongside where I had been parked. They cost about two hundred dollars apiece.

I paid for them with a check. And I printed it out.

Cursive writing is too expensive.

Later, Dean