RIVER CITY JOURNAL: THOSE WHO THROW AWAY THANK THOSE WHO KEEP EVERYTHING

Particularly when your memory is about as reliable as a tomcat given the responsibility of babysitting a canary.

Bob Ruff of Cape Girardeau was quick to respond to my plea in last week's column for information about that square inch of land I said I owned in Alaska's gold territory. Remember? The offer came on a cereal box in the 1950s. Kellogg's, I said.

Ruff's response was not only a random act of kindness, it was a gentle reminder about my old-timer's affliction. Of everything I remembered about the cereal company's land giveaway, I got the decade right.

Thank goodness my mind isn't completely shot. Yet.

Bob Ruff obviously can be counted among that half of the population known as keepers. The other half falls into the category of discarders. Fortunately, the two tend to balance each other. Otherwise, we would either be smothered with old baby clothes and report cards or totally devoid of any nostalgic memorabilia.

In our home, I am the discarder, and my wife is the keeper. As many times as we have moved over the past 32 years, you would think we would lighten the load and get rid of some stuff -- no, a lot of stuff.

All of this explains why I no longer have the deed to my square inch of valuable land. And Bob Ruff does.

Ruff left a packet of information for me, and it brought back lots of 40-year-old memories.

Included was a copy of the front and back of the deed he was issued in 1955 by the Klondike Big Inch Land Co. Inc. as the result of an offer on a Quaker Oats Co. (does that sound like Kellogg's to you?) cereal box.

It looks mighty official to me.

Also in the packet was a copy of a letter Ruff sent to the Quaker Oats folks in 1988, inquiring about the status of his square inch of land -- in the Yukon Territory of Canada, not in Alaska as I remembered. Quaker was the sponsor in the mid-1950s of the popular television show, "Sergeant Preston of the Yukon." And who could forget his faithful companion, King, a dog not only smarter than Lassie but able to endure Arctic winters as well?

According to a reply from one Julia Conaghan of Quaker's consumer response group, "millions of deeds to square inches of land were distributed through this promotion." The deed itself says a total of 19.11 acres of land were owned by Klondike Big Inch Land Co. in the Yukon Territory.

Some of you mathematicians can figure out exactly how many square inches that is. My quick calculations say there are 119,870,150.4 square inches in 19.11 acres. (Check me on this. My math is worse than my memory.)

Miss Conaghan -- who, by the way, was a senior specialist in 1988 -- says truthfully that the "real value of these deeds now, as always, is based on the romantic appeal of being a property owner in the fabled Yukon Territory."

She sent Ruff a store coupon for a free box of Quaker Oats along with her reply. He never used it, although he was still a fan of Quaker Oat Flakes -- both regular and instant -- and Quaker Oat Squares and Quaker Toasted Wholegrain Cereal.

Thanks, Bob, for taking the time to share all of this. And -- please, don't let my wife see this -- thanks for being a keeper. Otherwise, we would be giving all the credit for this land deal to Kellogg's. That wouldn't be fair.

The thought crossed my mind that it might be fun to go find the Klondike Big Inch Land Co.'s 19.11 acres in the Yukon. But the deed information is pretty discouraging: "Your land lies in a rugged wilderness. There are no roads or even trails to your land."

In other words, don't try checking up on this deal. What did you expect from one square inch?

~R. Joe Sullivan is the editor of the Southeast Missourian.