Five Forest Faries

In the dark woods, a little ways back from the road, there were these five fairies, all named Charlotte.  At least that's what I heard.  There was thumb-sized Charlotte and pinky-sized Charlotte, and the rest were regular finger-sized fairies.  They were all really nice, especially pinky Charlotte.

It was winter, and it was cold, and the fairies played in the snow sometimes; but not on the ground.  They flew around chasing the snowflakes that fell from the sky, and they laughed and sparkled a lot.

It was almost Christmas when the fairies heard this little girl laughing.  They flew to the edge of the forest, and there was this little girl, laughing and running around and looking for clues of a heffalump in the neighborhood.  She had a bag with lots of clues, but the best clue was too big to fit in the bag.  It was a heffalump foot print right there on the road and it was huge!

The little girl ran home with her bag of clues to tell her mommy and daddy about the heffalump, and the fairies flew along behind her, but she didn't see them.  At the house, they hovered at the front window while the little girl ran inside and around the room squealing, "I found footprints from a heffalump!  And ... I found all these clues!"

Mom and Dad had never ever seen a heffalump in person, but they really enjoyed the story their little girl told, and they looked through all the clues together.  Outside the living room window, the five forest fairies hovered like little hummingbirds and giggled along with the little girl.

Thumb-sized Charlotte said wistfully, "She's really nice," as she enjoyed watching the little heffalump hunter; "and she'd be fun to play with, I'll bet."  Pinky Charlotte lit up with big eyes and a smile and exclaimed, "we should move near to where she lives so she could visit us.  We could be neighbors and friends!"  The regular-sized Charlottes all agreed and suggested they invite George the granoladon to move with them.  George and all the Charlottes were the very best of friends.

Well it turns out that the night before Christmas, George and all the Charlottes packed up their houses and frogs and moved next to where the little girl lived.  Then on Christmas morning ... they sprang out of a Christmas box!  "Surprise, surprise!  Merry, merry, merry merry Christmas!"  And with their tiny voices, they sang Silent Night and Away in a Manger for their new friend.

The five forest fairies stayed and watched over their little friend for all the years of her childhood, and even when she was older, she remembered the story of Christmas they had shared with her; peace on earth, good will to men. And women.  And children.  And granoladons.

A Dark and Stormy Night

It was indeed a dark and stormy night, because it's always that way if you're on a pirate ship. 

And, it's tough being a pirate.  

If you're going to be a pirate, you have to be in a boat and on the water, working all the time, and there's never a chance to play or just sit around and do stuff.  "Heave ho, avast me hearties!"  What in the world does that mean? Then you've got to weigh the anchor every time, like once wasn't enough.

Little Johnny Jumpup had skipped school and run off to be a pirate and see the world, but all he saw was water, everywhere.  Plus, the pirates were mean and they stole stuff, so that part wasn't good at all.  "I just want a beach with palm trees and coconuts," Johnny muttered to himself, and decided, "a pirate's life is not for me." 

🎵 Yo, heave ho, this life is not for me! 🎶

So began his adventure on that dark and stormy night.  Little Johnny hopped into a dinghy (that's a really small boat) with his pack and with his friend, Monkey Mo.  He untied the ropes holding the dingy, and 'whoosh', they were racing away on the ocean, and the waves were huge.  The wind blew spray in Johnny's face and Monkey Mo clung tightly to the boat's mast to keep from bouncing out into the water.

Through the night and under the stars, they raced along with the wind and waves, and sometimes dolphins would jump and laugh in the water beside them.

Then finally, it's morning, and they manage to land at the very exact same spot little Johnny had started from; right in front of his mom and dad's house, and just in time for school. 😅 Whew!

Johnny and Monkey Mo settle into life with the family.  They go to school together, and eventually college.  Monkey Mo plays soccer and gets good grades; he eventually gets a degree in business.

Johnny went on to have a fun life and family. He and his wife Jane are both school teachers, and they have eleven children and twenty-seven grandchildren.  They should probably retire and just play with the kids and take vacations together at the beach with palm trees and coconuts.

Monkey Mo went with big business and eventually began managing a hedge fund on Wall Street.  He regretted that choice after he figured out that it was the same as being a mean pirate, so he resigned and moved back to the little town where Jane and Johnny live.  They welcomed him to the family, and he told stories to the grandkids about how stupid pirates are, and they all lived happily ever after.

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Okay, not every story has a hidden meaning, I guess.  Sometimes, stories are just for fun.  😉 Stupid pirates.

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For Ruby and her vivid imagination.
Love, Grandpa

The Truth About Bigfoot, Finally!

There are lots of scary stories about bigfoot, but this one is better than all of them.  So, ...

Once upon a time, in the deep, dark woods, Bitty Bella Bigfoot walked cheerfully along the path, whistling a pretty song.  She'd skip and dance a step or two, here and there, because the leaves made pretty noises when she did that.






Suddenly, there were these voices!  Bitty Bella Bigfoot hid behind a big tree because she heard strange voices she didn't recognize, right there in the woods.  On every other day when she danced in the woods, there was nobody there except sometimes George the granoladon, and he was a friend of hers.  They both liked strawberries, and he liked to hear her whistle pretty songs.  

Well, there she was, hiding behind a tree and being really quiet ... and here come these children dancing and smiling and laughing along the path through the forest.  But then they just stop!  And they look around and they ask, "What happened to the music?  How come the music stopped?"

"What music are they talking about," Bitty Bella wonders.  Then she remembers ... she was whistling!  

Shy and a little nervous, Bitty Bella steps out from behind the tree and smiles.  Then she whistles a little, and the children are so happy, "Oh, it was you that was whistling!  We heard you so many times and wondered where it was coming from, but we never found you until today."  So they laughed and hugged and danced, and Bitty Bella whistled her wonderful songs for them while they all danced together.

They became the best of friends, of course, and they enjoyed each other so much.  They were all really different, but they had things in common that they loved like music and dancing and the noise that leaves make when you dance in them.  They talked about other stuff, but mostly about the things they shared.  Friends are nice to have.

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Remember how we said there is a hidden meaning in 'once upon a time' stories?

What do you think it was?

     ~ Be a good friend?

     ~ Being different doesn't matter?

                 Yes, that's what's hidden

                   in Bitty Bella's story.  

She'd be happy we understand.

_________________________

For Ruby, my dancing granddaughter.  😍

Love, Grandpa

The tale of tiny Tina Tumbleweed ~ and how she saved everybody!

Once upon a time ...

You know what it means when a story starts like that, right.  "Once upon a time" means it's just a story, but there's a meaning hidden inside the story. 😉

Okay, so once upon a time in the little village called Tinkertown, there lived a young girl named Tina.  She lived with her dad and mom, Teo and Tillie Tumbleweed. Everybody in the town was little bitty, like maybe dandelion tall, so the town itself was only maybe as tall as a blueberry bush.

Tina was tiny, but she grew up to be really good at running and jumping.  She was so fast that even the older boys couldn't keep up.  They'd be being cool and typical boys, thinking they are faster than girls, but when it came to running a race, she would leave them in the dust.  She'd smile every time.  She was especially fast at turning corners, too, and no one could keep up with her running around trees and things.  

Tinkertown was nestled on the edge of a deep, dark, forest where the trees are just huge, like bigger around than the town is.  It gave them lots of shade in the afternoons and fun places to explore for the kids.

Well, in those same woods there lived this wooluf. He had big eyes and big ears and bad breath because he didn't brush his teeth much.  The wooluf prowled around the woods looking for something to eat pretty much every day, so eventually he found his way to Tinkertown.  As he looked from behind a big tree, he noticed all the people in the town were small, maybe just the right size for a meal, and he decided then and there he would try to catch one.  The wooluf's name was Wolfred, by the way.

So Wolfred the wooluf snuck out from the woods ... up to the edge of Tinkertown … where people filled the streets and the voices of street vendors floated in the air, "Radishes for sale, and grapes and strawberries, too."  Wolfred the wooluf stood up to get a better look ... and an old lady saw him and screamed oh so loud, "Eeeek!  It's a wooluf, it's a wooluf, eeeeeeeeek!"  

Suddenly, the town was in confusion with little people running everywhere, yelling to each other, "Run, run away fast!"

Tina saw it and at first, she was afraid and turned to run.  She knew she was the fastest, and if anybody could get away, she could, but before she had run the first step, she remembered her mom and dad and everybody else.  Maybe they could use some help.  Despite her fear, she thought, well I'm fast enough, and if anybody could distract the wooluf away from the village, I bet I could.  And with that thought, her decision was made.

She ran quickly to where the wooluf could see her and hollered, "Hey, hungry wooluf, eat me!  I betcha you can't," and she laughed at him.  Now she definitely had Wolfred the wooluf's attention.  He stopped and stared at her, trying to understand why his lunch would laugh at him like that.

He took a step toward her, but Tina danced aside and laughed again.  He took another step, and she dashed out to the edge of town and toward the woods.  "I can certainly catch her in the woods," thought Wolfred, "because that's my territory."  So off they went at an impressive speed.  Tiny Tina ran so fast that her little feet were a blur over the ground, and the wooluf was huge and just lumbered along behind her, not nearly as fast as she could do at her best.

Tiny Tina slowed down on purpose to let Wolfred catch up until she could feel his snorty nose-breath on the back of her ears, then she made a sudden turn around a tree, WHOOSH!,  and she did it so much quicker than Wolfred could.  He stumbled and tumbled and landed on his tail (ouch!), and he lost sight of Tina for a moment, but then he saw her way far ahead and set out after her again.  His tongue is hanging out the side of his mouth, and he's breathing hard and running really hard, trying to catch up.

Tiny Tina has a plan, and it's just ahead!  The thicket!  The thicket is bushes and brambles and briars that don't bother Tina at all because she's little and can run right under their little branches, but it's a problem for a big wooluf because he's so tall.  Tina lets Wolfred catch up until he's just inches behind her, and then she ducks into the thicket, and all the wooluf gets is a mouthful of thorny branches. "Aaaaaouch!"  Still running hard, Wolfred gets a face full of leaves and twigs with every step, and he keeps tripping over and over from all the brambles around his feet.  Not willing to be left behind in the race, the wooluf presses ahead, but he can hardly see through all the branches and leaves hitting and poking him in the face. (bonk, ouch! slap, ouch! boink, splat, poke, OUCH!)

"Almost, almost ...," Tina thinks as she sees her escape path just ahead.  She slows down to let Wolfred get closer ..., closer ..., now!  And suddenly, she makes a spectacularly quick turn right in front of this grandpa of all big trees; it's el magnifico huge, and Wolfred, who can't turn nearly fast enough, runs face-first into the tree!  BABABAAAMMMMMMM!  "My nose, my nose, ouch my nose," Wolfred wails in pain, "and my head, now I've got a big bump on my head, and my tooth is loose, I think, and I have an owie on my chin."  Wolfred sits on the ground, whining and complaining, but he's definitely done with running.  He finally gets up and limps off into the forest, never to be heard from again.

Success!  Tina smiles and skips all the way back home.

At Tinkertown, Tina is met by a crowd of family and friends, precious people she loves, and they congratulate her and thank her for saving everybody. When evening comes, they celebrate together and laugh a lot.  It is such fun that they do the celebration over and over each year afterwards.

And every year at the celebration, they tell the tale of tiny Tina Tumbleweed and how she saved the village of Tinkertown from the big, bad wooluf.  Every year, the story gets better, the people get tinier, and the wooluf gets bigger and badder because that's what happens when you tell tall tales over and over again.

Remember how we said there was a hidden meaning?
What do you think it was?

     ~ Be a good friend?

     ~ Do what's right?

     ~ Help those who need it?

         Yes, every one of those are hidden in Tina's story.  

She'd be happy we heard her message.         

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For Ruby Marie, my good-hearted and helpful granddaughter.

Grampa

The Deep Dark Woods

Once upon a time in the deep, dark woods, little Ruby walked along the path with her mom and dad.  She stayed close like she is supposed to until, suddenly ... from the distance, they heard a most amazing BURP!  It was a hugely magnificent burp and even the ground vibrated a little bit.

Ruby and her folks were so surprised; it was even a little scary. They couldn't help but go look and see what it was. What could burp so loud? Could it be an elephant, or maybe it was some secret dinosaur that had been hiding in the woods for a million years.  Who knew?

Off along the trail they ran, and Ruby ran the fastest.  Down the trail, over the hill, around the bend, and into a clearing ... 

FIRE!  FIRE! There was a cloud of fire in the air right there in front of them.  They could feel the heat, and it wasn't bad, sort of like sunshine at the beach.  And it was coming from a dragon!  It had to be a dragon because it was breathing fire out of it's mouth!

"Eeeek!"  They stopped in their tracks, not really sure what to do next.  Should they run, hide, scream?  Not knowing any better, they ran around in circles yelling, "what do we do, what do we do?"

Finally, Dad, the calmest one in the merry-go-round, says, "Wait a minute.  The dragon is smiling at us!"  And sure enough, it was.  

Ruby, ever the adventurer, steps curiously into the clearing and sees the monster close up.  Sure enough, it really is smiling and it's got something in its little hands; it's a strawberry!  Ruby loves strawberries, of course, and the monster cheerfully gives it to her, a friendship gift.

They all became life-long friends, and Ruby visited him a lot in the deep, dark woods.  Much later, they found out it wasn't a dragon, it was a granoladon, a friendly herbivore (leaf-eater) that had occasional flammable burps.  They named him George.

Ruby took all of her friends to meet George and play, but only after they and their parents got over the 'dragon' thing.  

Ruby learned a lot from George over the years, the best part of which was that being good and even occasionally being nice was a pretty powerful thing.

Think about it.  If George had been angry and mean, no one would have liked him, and everybody would be afraid of him because he was different. But George was good and even nice; and he shared his strawberries.  And if Ruby hadn't been brave, it would all have ended badly.  But! They did it right, and it changed everything ... without a word being spoken.  

Pretty cool, George.  Well done, Ruby.

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For Ruby, the nicest granddaughter in the world,

Grampa 

Of course, then there's the story of Tiny Tina Tumbleweed and how she saved everybody.