short stories...book excerpts...other writings...upon occasion or as prompted...
The tiger in the water? A representation of my life -- spirit and environment!

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Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Things That Grow

When my sister was in kindergarten, she invited a new friend to stay overnight. They played a lot. Then, they got bored.

My mommy wanted them to have a good time, so she promised to take them to see a movie. My sister and her friend were very excited!

Mommy made the promise before she knew whether there were any children's movies playing in town, so she had to look in all the newspapers. She looked and looked. She could not find any children's movies playing.

Finally, Mommy found a good movie at a movie theatre she had never been to before. She was so pleased! The movie was about Pinocchio. She knew we all liked the story of Pinocchio. So, all of us got dressed up pretty—even Daddy!

We got into the car. Mommy had directions and told Daddy where to go. None of us had ever been in that part of town before, so it took a little time and effort to find the theatre. It was an outdoors theatre and sort of hidden away from view.

When we arrived, the movie was about to start. My sister and her friend became even more excited.

We drove up to the marquee. Big, red letters told us we had found the Pinocchio film. Mommy read the red letters and changed her mind about taking us to see the movie. She told Daddy to turn around, and he did so immediately.

Mommy and Daddy took us to Baskin-Robbins instead of the movie. I like ice cream very much, so that was okay with me. My sister and her friend, though, would have preferred the movie. They did not understand why Mommy changed her mind, and Mommy could not explain very well. She said that some day they would understand why the words on the marquee had made her change her mind.

The marquee said, "Pinocchio: It wasn't his nose that grew!" So, what grew?

Conclusion Sometimes you just cannot figure out parents. (And they say that kids are capricious!)

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This story is excerpted from a collection of vignettes that I helped Doah, my severely mentally challenged youngest son, to write and publish several years ago (copyright 2003). It was my attempt to help him understand literacy and the purpose of writing and reading.

4 comments:

  1. Yes, we parents can be confusing at times.
    Hugs, andrea

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lizzie remembers that incident to this day! She wrote about it in a note she put on facebook: lessons I learned from Mom. One of the lessons is that it is not wise to take your children to porn flix! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. My mom and dad did something similar...took us to a movie and once we sat down and had our popcorn, they realized they'd picked the wrong theater...we left!

    Thanks for bringing up that great memory with your blog.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Glad I am not the only one! Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete

About Me

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I am the mother of 4 birth children (plus 3 others who lived with us) and grandmother of 2, all of them exceptional children. Married for 42 years, I grew up in Maine, live in California, and work in many places in education, linguistics, and program management. In my spare time, I rescue and tame feral cats and have the scars to prove it. A long-time ignorantly blissful atheist converted by a theophanic experience to Catholicism, I am now a joyful catechist. Oh, I also authored a dozen books, two under my pen name of Mahlou (Blest Atheist and A Believer-in-Waiting's First Encounters with God).

My Other Blogs

100th Lamb. This is my main blog, the one I keep most updated.

The Clan of Mahlou
. This is background information about various members of the extended Mahlou family. It is very much a work still in progress. Soon I will begin posting excerpts from a new book I am writing, Raising God's Rainbow Makers.

Modern Mysticism. This blog discusses the mystical in our pragmatic, practical, realistic, and rational 21st century world and is to those who spend some or much of their time in an irrational/mystical relationship with God. If such things do not strain your credulity, you are welcome to follow the blog and participate in it.

Recommended Reading List

Because I am blog inept, I don't quite know how to get a reading list to stay at the end of the page and not disappear from sight. Therefore, I entered it as my first post. I suppose that is not all that bad because readers started commenting about the books, even suggesting additional readings. So, you can participate with others in my reading list by clicking here.
I do post additional books as I read them and find them to be meaningful to me, and therefore, hopefully, meaningful to you. One advantage of all the plane traveling I do is that I acquire reading time that I might not otherwise take.
   

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