October 7, 2013 - Fabulaphile – Story-Lover
I love a good story. I love reading and when I was little I loved being read to. I also love a good storyteller – one of my personal favorite storytellers is Gerry Lougheed Jr. When I listen to sermon by him, I may not remember the text he was preaching from, but I sure do remember all the stories he tells to illustrate it.
My grandfather, “Pa,” was an amazing reader and storyteller. I had a couple of favourite books – Clip Clop (about a young horse eagerly awaiting his first pair of shoes) and Horace the Bear (about an adopted bear who systematically kills his entire human family.)
If Pa ever grew tired of reading these books, he sure didn’t show any signs of it. He entered into the tales with gusto – a horse going “clip clop, clip clop”, and the refrain from Horace: And Pa was just WILD, and he said, “I will KILL Horace!” But they all took on so, he hadn’t the heart to do it.
Pa could also invent a story on the spot. I would ask him, “Tell me the story about the time you and your brother Frank picked apples from a tree that you weren’t supposed to…” And he’d tell a tale longer than my little child-sized arm about sneaking into an orchard, and eating their fill - and then getting very sick. I loved a good moral tale.
We used to make up songs too. One of the songs popular in my childhood was “Little Miss Polly Polite.” The girl in the song was always doing good things, but the girl in our songs always had back luck. “She fell down the stairs one night” or “She broke tools with all her might.” Lots of things rhymed with “polite.”
I made up my own stories too, in my head. If grandfather had to do a little job of some kind around his part of the house (we lived with him,) I would draw and cut out mermaids who had magical adventures in Pa’s geraniums. Unlike Disney’s Little Mermaid, mine sometimes came to a tragic end – usually when I made their necks too thin and their heads fell off. Thankfully my mermaids were an infinitely renewable resource.
*****
I would not have known how to write up a “my perfect husband” description. But if I had, the top criteria would be having a deep love of reading books and the ability to tell a good story. I did two better when I married my hubs, Laurence. He went on to become an English teacher and now he publishes the stories of other people.
All of our kids were read to. When they were very young they got the Golden Books plus newer books from the library. And when they got older, Laur read them all of The Tales of Narnia, The Hobbit, and Lord of the Rings. He enjoyed it as much as they did, even though he was pretty tired come their bedtime. One of our kids favourite memories is of their Dad falling asleep while reading – what would happen is that the sentence would become gibberish and they’d have to poke him to get him back on track.
I am so very grateful for the Public Library. I have at least four books out at any one time, and when I’m down to my last book I get anxious, which is funny because the GSPL is unlikely to run out of books anytime soon.
I am in full agreement with the author of The Tales of Narnia, C. S. Lewis, who said, “You can't get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me.”
My grandfather, “Pa,” was an amazing reader and storyteller. I had a couple of favourite books – Clip Clop (about a young horse eagerly awaiting his first pair of shoes) and Horace the Bear (about an adopted bear who systematically kills his entire human family.)
If Pa ever grew tired of reading these books, he sure didn’t show any signs of it. He entered into the tales with gusto – a horse going “clip clop, clip clop”, and the refrain from Horace: And Pa was just WILD, and he said, “I will KILL Horace!” But they all took on so, he hadn’t the heart to do it.
Pa could also invent a story on the spot. I would ask him, “Tell me the story about the time you and your brother Frank picked apples from a tree that you weren’t supposed to…” And he’d tell a tale longer than my little child-sized arm about sneaking into an orchard, and eating their fill - and then getting very sick. I loved a good moral tale.
We used to make up songs too. One of the songs popular in my childhood was “Little Miss Polly Polite.” The girl in the song was always doing good things, but the girl in our songs always had back luck. “She fell down the stairs one night” or “She broke tools with all her might.” Lots of things rhymed with “polite.”
I made up my own stories too, in my head. If grandfather had to do a little job of some kind around his part of the house (we lived with him,) I would draw and cut out mermaids who had magical adventures in Pa’s geraniums. Unlike Disney’s Little Mermaid, mine sometimes came to a tragic end – usually when I made their necks too thin and their heads fell off. Thankfully my mermaids were an infinitely renewable resource.
*****
I would not have known how to write up a “my perfect husband” description. But if I had, the top criteria would be having a deep love of reading books and the ability to tell a good story. I did two better when I married my hubs, Laurence. He went on to become an English teacher and now he publishes the stories of other people.
All of our kids were read to. When they were very young they got the Golden Books plus newer books from the library. And when they got older, Laur read them all of The Tales of Narnia, The Hobbit, and Lord of the Rings. He enjoyed it as much as they did, even though he was pretty tired come their bedtime. One of our kids favourite memories is of their Dad falling asleep while reading – what would happen is that the sentence would become gibberish and they’d have to poke him to get him back on track.
I am so very grateful for the Public Library. I have at least four books out at any one time, and when I’m down to my last book I get anxious, which is funny because the GSPL is unlikely to run out of books anytime soon.
I am in full agreement with the author of The Tales of Narnia, C. S. Lewis, who said, “You can't get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me.”