Grandparents, and older adults generally, are excellent sources for
stories and activities that fascinate children. Plotting, writing and then
rehashing such stories can be as much fun for grandma and grandpa, as
for the grandkids who hear or read them. In years to come, the young
grandchildren of today will read to their own grandchildren the stories
that their grandparents wrote for them. The process enhances a family's
sense of continuity and cohesion, especially in circumstances where the
family is dispersed.
Reviewing how a story came to be may refresh memories of childhood
to the generation in the middle as well to the elders and, in time, to the
young as they mature. Here is a model with which to experiment.
Except for some moderate editing for continuity, the dialogue
immediately following is pretty much as it happened.
(Grandma said) 'Mike, answer the phone. I'm busy.'
(Grandpa grumbled) 'It's probably for you.'
'Well, then, take the message.'
(Mumble, mumble) 'Hello.'
'Hi, Grandpa!'
'Yo, ho, ho! Looka what I got, and it isn't even my birthday!
My too-faraway grandchild! How goes...?'
'I want another story, Grandpa.'
'Huh? What's this 'another' story bit all of a sudden?'
'A space story, Grandpa, write me a space story.'
'Space? What do I know about space? Where in space?'
'Far out.'
'How far? Space is humungous.'
'Tell me about it. I watch TV cartoons too.'
'Well then, as one expert to another, this calls for a telephone story
conference.'
The next ten minutes consisted of an in-depth give-and-take during
which grandchild enlightened me about our Sun and its family of
planets. Together, we counted off and named the planets from Mercury
on out, guessed at the number of moons orbiting each, and which of the
outer planets had rings 'Éthat look like flattened hula hoops.' It wasn't
long before I was frantically leafing through the encyclopedia I hauled
out to the dining room table as we talked. After all, to this (then) six-
year old, I was 'grandpa', and grandpa, to a six-year old, knows, doesn't
he? Finally, I succumbed to Grandchild's demands.
'OK. I'll write a story, but first I got questions. Holler Mom to the
extension phone. Tell her to bring notepaper and a pencil.'
'Hi, Dad, what's happenin'.'
'Don't ask me, ask my grandchild; she gave me the job. But I wasn't
born yesterday, ol' gramps is switching this around to a family project,
so are you ready, I hope. OK? Write this down and call me back with
the answers. I need a boy character and a girl character. Give them
names. Next, where do they live? Just 'in space' ain't enough. Where in
space? On the moon? On Mars along with that double-jointed six-
wheeler we sent up a few years ago there to sniff around in potholes and
climb over rocks? Where?
'Maybe the characters live on one of the Asteroids? How about one of
Jupiter's dozen or so moons? How about putting them on a pebble or a
grain of sand that whirls along somewhere in an outer ring of Saturn?
Or you folks have a family story conference and make up your own
answers. OK?'
An anguished moan 'Oh, no!' from the other end of the line. Grandchild
phoned back later.
'The girl's name is Stobey and she is a space worm, and the boy is
Slutter and he's a slime.'
'Oh, my! Stobey the Space Worm and Slutter the Slime. That's a fine
pair of characters you're giving me to work with. What else did you
come up with?'
'Mom says for you to use your own imagination and not to bother her.'
'Hmmm, I'm being abandoned in deep space. OK, how about Stobey
and Slutter in a story about a space bagel?'
'C'mon, you're kiddin'; but it's your problem, Gramps! Carry on!'
And that led to the story about':
A Bagel? In Space?
Stobey the Space Worm is a girl, and she and her friend Slutter the
Slime, a boy, live on farms next to each other. The farms are on Planet
Mars.
One morning, after breakfast, Stobey runs to Slutter's house and they
race each other to their spaceships. Stobey's spaceship is squishy and is
named Cream Cheese; Slutter's spaceship is as slimy as he and has the
well-deserved name Lox.
Spaceship Lox is named after a kind of smoked fish that was taken
along by the first expedition of colonists to Planet Mars from Planet
Earth. It's a real slippery fish, even after it's smoked.
Stobey climbs aboard Cream Cheese and Slutter slides into Lox. They
take off and head for a landing strip on the slope of a mountain on
Phobos, one of Planet Mars' moons.
They land their spaceships on Phobos and explore the mountaintop.
They come to a wide, deep hole near the center of the peak. Next to the
wide, deep hole they see a sign. On the sign is printed 'The name of this
mountain is 'Bagel.'
'Just imagine,' Stobey laughs. 'We flew to the moon on Cream Cheese
and Lox, and where did we land? On a bagel!'
It begins to rain. The rainwater on Phobos is white. The reason the milk
is white is that on the moons of Mars it always rains milk-real milk.
There is a legend in the Planet Mars community that the milk-rain on
Phobos really comes from the Cow That Jumped Over the Moon.
Stobey and Slutter take drinking cups from their lunch boxes and hold
them up. The cups fill with milk.
'Hm,' says Slutter. 'Here we are, with Cream Cheese and Lox on Bagel,
having cups of milk.'
Stobey and Slutter look at each other and giggle. The giggles turn to
laughs. My, how they laugh. They explore Bagel Mountain for a while,
then walk back to their spaceships. They say good-bye to each other,
climb aboard, and switch on the ship's motors. The motors roar and the
ships are ready to take off.
Slimy Lox gets off fine but goopy soft Cream Cheese sticks to the Bagel
and is in trouble. Stobey presses real hard on the engine pedal. After a
real hard try Cream Cheese smears along the surface, finally gets
unstuck and squirts into space.
'Why was it so hard for Cream Cheese to get off the Bagel?' Stobey
wonders.
She doesn't know, of course, that bagels all across our solar system have
always had a mysterious and powerful attraction for cream cheese. For
instance, on Planet Earth the single most important question throughout
history has been, 'Of what possible use can a bagel be, without cream
cheese?'
The two spaceships head for home.
(The same story can be written using hamburger and catsup on a bun
with soda pop or any popular, traditional or restaurant combination. Try
it with your grandchild's favorite snack.)
That started a series, the first of which was: