Younger Folks

[Faron]

Asy, Most likely that well had a concrete top three or 4 inches thick. That is what Bibbyman and company is sitting on. At three to eight feet in diameter, the kids weren't going to move it- even if they got the notion to do so.

[Bibbyman]

The wooden structure behind me was a little doghouse thing about 3' tall with a hinged lid on it that covered the hole.

The well is still there.  The doghouse structure is gone. I coved the hole with a couple very large flat rocks.



Here is a picture of me and my sister Dorothy Lee probably taken on "picture day" at the one room school I attened through 8'th grade.  I'm not too sure how old I was there but not nearly old enough to go to school.  Note the restroom in the right side of the picture.  Looks like my pants still has the tag on them - probably so mom can return them.  I never remember wearing them or seen them in any other photos.  :D

[Dave Shepard]

Asy, Most likely that well had a concrete top three or 4 inches thick. That is what Bibbyman and company is sitting on. At three to eight feet in diameter, the kids weren't going to move it- even if they got the notion to do so.

Unless there was a tractor and chain handy. :D :D


Dave

[Bibbyman]

 

If you're a glutton for punishment,  here is a picture of me and my shadow.  It's my Uncle Elmer standing behind me.  Note the almost exact same pose.  I wrote a bit about my Uncle Elmer in older folks.  Of all my uncles,  I think he was my favorite. 

Uncle Elmer story in Older Folks

Another Uncle Elmer story in A Funny Story

[faronskid]

My oldest son brought home a paper that he had written at school that I wanted to share with you all.  The assignment was to write about the best day of your life;
                        The Day My Papaw Let Me Shoot a Gun
                             By Ethan (age 7)
     Last year I shot my papaws pellet gun.  It was heavy.  It was loud.  The gun was cool.  Jaron did it too. I liked it.  We shot at a cardboard  box on the fence.  The pellets were tiny.  The gun was long.  I know how to shoot it but Papaw had to show me how to load it.  I had to look through the scope.  When I pulled the trigger it came back and kicked me.  My arm was sore.  My mom picked me up.  My mom didn't let Avery do it.  The end.




This goes to show you that you can take them on big vacations or spend money on huge birthday parties but it's the little, everyday things that you do with them that are the most important and the most memorable.  Thanks Papaw for giving him the "best day of his life."

[sawguy21]

That is great, thanks for sharing it with us. Pawpaw, take a bow. 8)

[Roxie]

 :D  Farons Kid, your story reminds me of my grandson, Nathan (4), and his recent trip to Disney World. 

When Nathan came home from Disney World, I asked him, "What was your very favorite part of the vacation?"  He said, "Granma, I got to ride in the very back of the van with Mommy and we watched video's and the luggage was on top of the van, Granma, the luggage was ON TOP." 

I guess Mickey Mouse is no match for loading luggage on the roof of a van and watching video's with his Mom.   

[faronskid]

Aren't kids great, Roxie, they are so honest.  My kids asked me where my favorite place was.  I said "at home with you guys."  My oldest replied "well my favorite place is grandma's, it's so cozy there, and she cooks for us."   I just can't compete with grandma and grandpa.

[beenthere]

Great reminders.
Our oldest grand daughter, when she was 5 and living in OK, was here on vacation, and for some reason we had a small trailer tire that she got quite a bang out of getting it to roll down the hill..heard that when she returned to kindergarten, she was asked about her vacation....and said "MY  grandpa let's me roll tahres". Caught the teacher having to chuckle a bit....doesn't take the fancy ToysRUs to keep them interested and happy (as long as Grandpa would retrieve it outta the woods.. ;D).

[Bibbyman]

Last summer when the girls were off school,  Mary had a hard time getting the girls to go do shopping or run errands with her.  Especially Brooke wanted to stay home and play in their play house.

When we travel with the girls,  the big event is the pool in the motel.

Kids can get more fun out of a big cardboard box or a hill of dirt than they can with expensive toys.

[Faron]

I was impressed with a story faron'skid passed along to me the other day, and thought I would share it here.  Maybe she can kind of fill in the blanks later on.

All kids in our county go to a single consolidated school from 6th grade up.  That makes for a fairly large number of kids.  All types and all backgrounds.  There is a family of kids that are particularly needy.                         

One boy, a sixth grader, was wearing a pair of shoes to school that were completely coming apart.  Knowing 6th graders, I imagine he was taking a fair amount of cruel comments.  One boy sat down next to him and said something like, "Hey,your shoe's got a hole in it!"  The boy kind of hung his head and replied "Yeah, I guess I've about wore these out."  A school staff member overheard the conversation, and likely figured the teasing was about to start.  The first boy said," You have some pretty big feet, what size do you wear?"  The shoeless boy replied, and the conversation drifted, and then ended.

The next day or so, the staffer noticed the boy approach the needy boy again,this time with a box under his arm.  He quietly handed the box of shoes to the boy.  I don't know if he had gone home and gotten a pair of his own shoes, or bought a pair, but he provided his classmate with something he needed. 

Instead of teasing and making the boy's situation worse, this kid quietly did what he could to help. I don't know either boy, but some parent has reason to be very proud.  I believe the staffer nominated the boy for, and he later received, some award presented to kids for doing the right thing.

And that is what this Christmas season is about.

[Norm]

That's a great story Faron, thank you. A good reminder to us all.

[Tom]

Newspapers have gotten so big that local news has taken a back seat.  In my youth, our local paper had editors who would write columns about stuff like this.  There was usually enough information that the people involved could recognize the the incident, but, to the rest of the reading audience, it was just a local happy story.  The last thing to do is embarrass someone.

I had a story written about me by the most influential columnist of the day, Charles Cope.   Grandmom cut it out and kept it in her bible for years.  I don't know what ever happened to it and I'm probably the only one that would recognize it if I saw it in the Paper's archives.  But it is there for all all of recorded history as long as someone doesn't "house clean" to make room for storing AP stories.

It's a shame that the newspapers have gone this way.  I guess it's got to do with success and their idea of "growing up".  The TV and Radio stations are guilty as well.  It certainly leaves a big gap in the lives of locals when their paper abandons them.

Why don't you write this story as a Letter to the Editor and see if you can get it published? 

[asy]

My Stephanie did a similar thing.

There's a lot of new African Immigrants in her school and Stephanie was friends with one in particular. This girl was a good athlete, but didn't have any shoes. The school shoes she wore were falling apart and she didn't have a pair of runners.

Both girls were on the school's soccer team.

Whenever they played, Kadi would take her shoes off and play bare-footed. She told the teachers and other kids it was "how they played in Africa and she was used to it". The teachers kept telling her she HAD to bring shoes, as they wouldn't be able to allow her to play the inter-school sports bare-footed.

Kadi confided to Stephanie that it was because she didn't have any shoes. Stephie surreptitiously checked and Kadi's feet were a size or two smaller than Steph's. Stephanie came home and scoured her room for too-small shoes. She came up with a pair of Soccer boots from the previous year, and a pair of Black Dress shoes from Choir. Her choir shoes are barely used, as they're only worn to rehearsals and performances. She took both pairs to school and quietly gave them to Kadi.

She wore the old choir shoes as school shoes, and now had soccer boots which she was thrilled with.

asy :D

[Haytrader]

ANOTHER great story.
The papers SHOULD be full of these kind of stories instead of all the negatives.
Good on both kids and good on Faron and asy for telling them.

[sawguy21]

Two great stories. Stephanie and that boy Faron talked about may have no idea of the  consequences of their kindness but they will eventually be rewarded.

[thecfarm]

Well,there's two kids that was bought up right.

[Phorester]

Reminds me of an episode on the old Andy Griffith TV show when 10 year old Opie, Andy's son, didn't want to contribute to the school Fund For the Poor at Christmas because he wanted to save up for a gift for his girlfriend.  Andy always interrupted and never would let Opie tell the whole reason and belittled his son for being so selfish, etc.  End of the show, it turns out Opie was saving up to buy his girlfriend a winter coat since her family could not afford to give her one.

Good to hear of real-life episodes of the same philosophy.  The boy that gave the shoes to the other boy is in for a rewarding life.

[Bro. Noble]

There is a fellow in Springfield that owns a shoe store.  Every year he supplies  shoes to every student in a small rural school near us.  He will only say that someone pays him to do it.  Not even Paul Harvey knows the rest of the story,  but I'm sure it's a good one.

[Don K]

I have a nephew that loves tractors and when he comes over to stay with Uncle Donald we have to do some work. He wanted to dig a hole to catch Santa Claus and his reindeer.  :D :D  He is 5.  I figured since I had to dig a trap for Santa, I would get up a small oak stump in the side yard.







We got the stump out and finished the trap which I promptly filled as soon as he went home.

Hey, Santa hadn't delivered my new lathe yet. :D  I couldn't make the man mad. ;D

I'll come up with a good story as to why the hole is full when he comes back. ;)

Don

[Roxie]

What an unusual tradition.....up here in Pennsylvania, we leave Santa milk and cookies.

[asy]

Ya wanna hope Santa goes North ---> South, rather than the other way, otherwise yer milk & Cookies might get left alone coz Santa's stuck in a santa-trap at DonK's!

Hey, Rox, while we're on the subject, and hidden somewhere da Boss hopefully won't see it, did ya notice he hasn't rudolphed us yet this year!? hehe

asy :D

[thecfarm]

I have a 9 year old Grandson the same way.Well almost,he never asked me to dig a hole for a Santa trap.   :D He always wants me to get the tractor out.Even if we just put brush in the loader.I have plenty of rocks to dig out,but he's sick of doing that.Glad you filled the hole in.I don't know if Santa is going South to North or not.If he going North to South you can keep the hole.He will all ready dropped off my new woods trailer to me.
When I lived alone I did not have a Chritmas tree.My 4 year old niece came over to see me.With eyes wide she told me that with no tree I would not get no presents from Santa.I told her that he would leave them at Grammies house.All smiles from her and I was in her good graces again.

[Phorester]

Good one, ROXIE.  I'm glad Santa comes north to south.  He'll get to me before heading to the Alabama trap.

[pineywoods]

Bunch of us small younguns strung up a fish net around the tree at grannys one year. Idea was to get santa all tangled in the net so we could wrangle some more goodies out of him in return for helping him get loose.  :-\
BTW it didn't work, aparently santa has seen that one before.