Thanks, Partridge:

I've been having a good time these days renewing old aquaintances with school buddies. The thing I find humorous is how radically different some of our memories are. I remember a hot dog joint in my home town as being dark and greasy inside. My friend remembers it as very well lit and not greasy. The same thing happens when we talk about experiences we had together. We each remember it with a slightly different twist. Sometimes, the twist is major. People put a lot of stock in memories. Probably too much. As the years go by, memories evolve and can become much more ornate. I know there are times when that happens with me. In the long run, memories are just our perception of how we remember things happened. Not necessarily how they actually happened. Sometimes our memories are a vast improvement over what actually happened.

An example:

A highschool buddy of mine had a banty rooster. My memory of how he got it is now 50 years old, and through the years has become quite elaborate. The way I remember him telling it, he was out in his front yard one summer afternoon, and when a car drove by, a banty rooster came flying out of the rear window, and came running toward his house. The man driving the car hopped out, and was chasing the rooster, and the rooster was running Hell Bent for Leather. At the same time, an unsuspecting squirrel was running across the yard, and even though the rooster was the pursued, he couldn't ignore the challenge of the squirrel and took off after the squirrel. As he came skidding around the corner, he almost ran into my friend Earl, who quickly grabbed him. When the man came around the corner, puffing like a steam engine and saw Earl, he asked for his rooster. Earl being a real slick talker managed to convince the man that what he really wanted to do was give the rooster to Earl. So, Earl kept the rooster, named it Herbert and when he went to college in Oregon the next fall, he threw it in on the deal when I bought Earl's Harley Davidson 125 for $90.00. That's the way I remember Earl telling me how it happened, over fifty years ago.

Here is what actually happened according to Earl, 2006: The rooster did indeed escape from a passing car, but it was a friend of Earl's who caught it. When he couldn't keep it, he gave it to Earl. Earl has no idea how the rooster got the name Herbert. There was hot pursuit of a squirrel, or any slick-talking done by Earl.

As I tell Earl, he remembers what happened (maybe.) I remember how it should have happened. I like my story a lot better. I even threw Herbert in a Cadillac when I wrote a song about him:

"He came a' riding in to town in a great big Cadillac
With the windows all rolled down, tied in a gunny sack
But the sack was for potatoes, and not for Herbert's kind
And with his spurs as sharp as razors, he cut the ties that bind.

So, where did the squirrel come in? When I owned Herbert he was one of the first "Free-range" chickens. Earl kept him tied up to a pole with a rope around one leg. I let Herbert have the run of the yard, and because it wasn't fenced in, he actually had the run of the neighborhood.

"When Herbert strolled the neighborhood, the squirrels stayed in their nest
The dogs all looked the other way, and the cats would genuflect
And the pigeons in my Dad's garage got up an barred the door
For those who messed with Herbert, were never seen no more."

Herbert did find squirrels to be a personal affront, and he made life Hell for the neighbor's cat. The cat made the mistake of stalking Herbert once, and when he punced for the attack, he found that he had a banty roosted on his back with spurs dug in as firmly as any rodeo cowboy. Herbert took the cat for a little ride, and it was the last time the cat came within a hundred yards of Herbert.

"And Herbert was the terror of the local countryside
Sometimes he'd flag the neighbor's cat. and he'd take him for a ride."

So you see, my memory of how Earl got Herbert was about 90% wrong, and yet in a way, it was Herbert. If Herbert HAD seen a squirrel in the yard, he would have abandoned any attempt to get away, and taken off after the squirrel. And if Earl had been the one to catch Herbert, he WOULD have smooth-talked the guy out of his rooster. For something that never happened, I got the story just right.

Jerry