Passing On The Stories

 I have a long, love affair with stories. From the real life stories and the picture books shared with my Grandma Grace and the bedtime stories read by Mom and Dad. Now I'm the grandmother and Ive never loved anything more than being Grandma.

 When my boys were little we went to the library to Storytime, and now that they are Dads, I find myself repeating the adventure with the granddaughter, and hopefully someday with the younger cousins she has as well.

 Stories bridge the gap between not knowing how to get through this adventure we call life, and being able to use our imagination to draw on the history and knowledge stretching back through our family and the human family in general.  I am so blessed to have my rich store of tales and memories.  My mom's dementia reminds me that even those can be taken from us, and need to be shared and distributed to our future before we lose them.

 Bless the future with the lessons you have learned and teach them to choose kindness and strength over fear and cruelty. Happy Valentine's Day to the world.

Little Pink Monster, a retelling

Little Pink Monster

It really had nothing to do with my son and daughter-in-love picking this Halloween costume for their baby and at first I didn't remember. But then I did and once I mentioned it, so did my son. One of my favorite things to do with my boys when they were small was take them camping, and while camping to retell those old campfire stories which are handed down in families and in things like Girl Scouts and summer camp. One story I retold was easily adapted to any environment you might be in, and was sometimes a little pink Gorilla and sometimes a little Pink Monster.

 Not my original story of course but my embellishments like modernizing with cell phones or setting it in the woods or camp where we were at the moment made it ours. 

The Little Pink Monster (short version)

One dark and stormy night a man was driving along a dark, deserted road far from anywhere. Suddenly his tire blew out and when he checked, his spare was missing. He looked around the empty road and at the dark forest surrounding him
And knew it was pointless but tried his cell phone anyway. "Searching for Service."

He locked his car and walked back down the road a long way until a country lane branched off of it. He turned and followed the lane for a long time and finally came to a farmhouse. Even though it was the middle of the night, he knocked and a little old man came to the door.
"No, sorry but I don't have a phone. You can sleep on my couch and maybe we can patch up your tire in the morning."

Just when he was starting to think everything would be ok, the old man added, "You'll be fine as long as you don't touch the little pink monster"

Of course he had to see it, so the old man took a key ring and led him down the steps and through several doors that got progressively smaller. Then he knocked on a door that was only knee high and said, "little pink monster please come out." And a tiny pink monster opened the door and came out and grinned up at them.

Once the doors were locked and the old farmer slept, our hero couldn't leave well enough alone. He took the keyring and went down the stairs, opened each door and finally let out the monster. Then he bent and gently, timidly,  patted it on the shoulder.

SUDDENLY IT BEGAN TO GROW AND GROW AND GROW AND TO CHASE HIM

He ran up the steps and it crashed through the walls. He ran outside and down the lane and onto the country road and it chased him. He ran to his car and it was locked and the monster was huge and right behind him. He turned to face its knee and it bent a clawed paw toward him

And patted his shoulder and roared

TAG, YOU'RE IT!!

On my Book Shelf, or stacked somewhere in my house.

Now that I took the terrifying step of Self-publishing, I have to admit that my love of books has shaped my entire life. Sometimes I wouldn't be able to remember a book except for the things that were happening in my real life as I read it, other times, I would have forgotten that I ever went somewhere except that I remember being there while reading a certain book.

Of course the book I wrote draws from my real life, near Yellowstone and my Trip to Guatemala, and raising my sons; it also draws heavily from my imagination, which was formed in large amount, by the books I read and the stories I was told. You can find, Duffy Barkley is Not a Dog, here https://www.createspace.com/3450238

Here I want to share with you the books I could never share with you in real life. the ones I will recommend but never lend because I read them again and smile just seeing them on the shelf. My shelves are like a facebook re-union with old friends and classmates, and there is where I go when I miss the adventures we shared and the times I fell in love, or died, or was brave, or solved the unsolvable mystery.

To share my friends and many lives, visit these titles.

Johnny Tremain, a 1943 children's novel by Esther Forbes

The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of seven fantasy novels for children written by C. S. Lewis

Trixie Belden is a series of 'girl detective' mysteries written between 1948 and 1986

My Side of the Mountain is a 1959 book of fiction by Jean Craighead George

The Diddakoi by Rumer Godden

The Ghost of Dibble Hollow by May Nickerson Wallace.

Pippi Longstocking by Swedish author Astrid Lindgren

My sons introduced me to Ghost Boy by Iain Lawrence and his other books are great too.

Sensible Kate by Doris Gates.

Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink

and for younger kids, I adored Look out for pirates! by Iris Vinton

and still take it to read to classes of children who also love it.

and they also love Abiyoyo and Abiyoyo Return's

and so will you no matter what age you are as long as you try to sing his name.