generations of townsfolk had carried the story , each passing it down the line , from father to son , mother to daughter , publican to patron , neighbour to neighbour , and from burro to burro ; until in its present state , having been over many days misinterpreted , miss-communicated , and completely misunderstood , it had become nothing more than a charred hole in the ground , dug in remembrance of some old town squabble that hadnt even occurred with an adversary that no one could even remember .