It started innocently enough. Sam was trying to get to sleep in a new room, new bed, new country and he wanted me to tell him a story. I made up some goofy story about a couple of strange characters named Ted and Scooter. This was fine for a few days, a week even. Pretty soon the plots had to become more elaborate and it became harder and harder to remember all the stuff I had made up about them. Don’t worry…Sam had me covered. Every slip I made about their history he jumped all over. “Dad…Scooter can’t read! Don’t you remember?” Fast forward 5 months and I now have a whole cast of characters and I’m on the verge of either killing them all off in a major bedtime story disaster or writing my own children’s story line. How do I get out of this? I start to get nervous about an hour before bedtime. What if I don’t have a good enough story? Is Scooter’s best friend Tiny or Bug? What else could they possibly do? I’ve sent them on cruises, airplanes, to a pancake eating contest (Ted won by the way), argh! I’m telling you it doesn’t look good for Ted or Scooter. This kid has to learn to read…and soon!
Janey and I had the stories about Kemo the sled dog that lasted for months. Janey took over the story telling and soon enough moved on to something else once she started to read on her own. I believe they were all killed in a violent snowstorm at the end. Still makes me cry .
ReplyDeletehaha...he has so many rules for the stories it kills me. Tough gig.
ReplyDeleteNeil Sendak. What a beautiful voice. Isn't he the Velvet Fog? No, wait...
ReplyDeleteHahaha