Boxcar Pete had been
working for the railroad for 45 years
and was just one day away from retirement.
He was a rough individual, but he also
had a heart of gold. Over the years, he
had to remove many transients, or hobos
from the empty boxcars, but would always
offer a bit of advice, a reassuring pat
on the back and possibly a few dollars
to help them out.
Each day, he would show up for work in
his coveralls, the same hat he had been wearing
for those 45 years and check the box cars
in out-going trains for hobo's or anyone else
possibly trying to steal a lift to a nearby
city. Although he was only one day away from
retirement, that morning was no different
than any other.
Walking along the tracks checking the
empty box cars, one by one, peering in from
the door and then closing it, he heard something
peculiar as he approached the next box car
to be checked. It was music. Beautiful music!
Music like he never heard before. Curious,
he crept along making sure he didn't make
any noises. When he got to the door, he opened
it very slowly and peered in. He was astonished
at what he saw. It was three mice. One was
playing a rubberband with his mouth, another
played the drums on an old spool of thread
with two tooth picks, and the third was playing
a hollow tube made from a small ladies hair
clasp. He also noticed that they had no tails.
Boxcar Pete climbed into the box car,
sat and listened for a little while and then
when he started to tell them how much he enjoyed
their music. They stopped playing and just
froze because you see, they were blind mice.
He assured them that nothing would happen
to them. They explained that they were on
the run and had been for some time and thought
the person looking for them finally caught
up with them. He asked, "What happened
to you?"
And they sang...
" We're three blind mice, three blind
mice, you should have seen us run, we all
ran after the farmers wife, who cut off our
tails with a carving knife, did you ever see
such a thing in your life, we' re three blind
mice, three blind mice!"
Boxcar pete was so impressed,
he took them home with him and promised
no harm would ever come to them. He spent
his retirement years on the front porch
swing, with a glass of tea each night
listening to his friends, the three blind
mice entertain him with music from the
30's and 40's. He also had to oil them
every once in awhile. Why? Because mice
squeak!
After many years, Boxcar Pete said in
jest as to give them comfort, "Why do
mice have long tails anyways?"
To which they replied, "They would
look pretty funny with long hair!"
The
End
Pookie,
the Purple Catapillar
This is the story of
Pookie, the purple catapillar. It's
not a fancy story; or a story that will
bring you any sort of inner peace; but
instead, a story that may help you see
the forest through the trees.
This story begins one early fall day,
when all the leaves on the trees were changing
colors and drifting so beautifully to the
floor of the forest. All the other bugs and
creatures used to compliment Pookie daily
on the graceful way in which she moved about
and how she shared her dreams and aspirations
with all of them of her floating through the
air someday with the greatest of ease. Many
of her friends believed her, however, there
were some who scoffed and laughed at her.
But she didn't mind. She just simply believed
in herself and her dream.
That evening, she told everyone that she
was going to climb this tree of all trees
that was commonly but reverantly known as
'The Big Mamma'. This was no ordinary tree.
It had been there for 1000's of years and
was the tallest, the biggest, the widest,
the leafiest, the branchiest tree you've ever
seen! Pookie said she was going to climb it,
take a nap when she got to the top, and then
fly down to all who would be there for her.
They threw a little going away party for her
and off she climbed until she was out of site.
They decided to go to their homes and wait
until spring because the weather was starting
to change. Some thought they would never see
her again.
By the time she got to
the top of The Big Mamma, the weather
was really windy and getting very cold
so she started to build her a caccoon
on a branch to keep warm. Pookie fell
asleep and when she awoke, it was a warm,
sunny day. She stretched out and noticed
that there was something different about
herself. She had awoke with the most beautiful
wings with hundreds and hundreds of different
colors in them. She thought to herself,
all my dreams have come true and outstretched
her arms and leaped off the branch. She
fluttered and floated and flew around
the tree for what seemed an eternity.
And when she reached the floor of the
forest, there they all were clapping with
tears in their eye's.
"We knew you could do it! We knew
you could do it Pookie!", they shouted
and screamed. Then off she flew, never to
be seen again. She was a legend. So much so,
they spoke of her often. They even wrote a
song about her. You want to hear it? Here
it goes!
(Sung to: Rock a Bye Baby)
Good little Pookie, in the tree top,
Climbed up Big Momma only to stop,
When she awoke, she spread out her wings,
And floated away to dream other dreams.
Your dreams can come true. But only if
you believe in yourself and never give up
on those dreams.
God Bless.
This would be a nice little story to read
to your kids, or grandkids as a bedtime story.
Pookie is a friend of mine.
The
End
Patty
Cake, The Lumberjack
Now this is a story about a lumberjack.
A giant of a man he was with a heart
of gold. Among the people of the lumbering
town who knew him, knew they could
count on him in any given circumstance.
His name was Patty Cake and when
people were first introduced to him,
it made them laugh, snicker or smile.
Being 7 feet tall and all brawn, I
can guarantee you that not too many
people made fun of his name very long.
You could hear Patty Cake all day long
yelling, "T I M B E R !" deep the
surrounding forrests. He did this all day,
everyday, for years. One day in late November,
he was chopping down this 1000 foot tree and
just as he was getting ready to yell T I M
B E R, he noticed a birds nest far, far up
in the tree. But because the tree was falling,
he couldn't do anything about it until he
saw that the nest was falling out of the tree
as the tree was falling.
Patty Cake, having the
heart of gold that he did, dropped his
axe and ran to catch the falling nest.
He dove for it and caught it just before
it hit the ground. He noticed 3 little
birdies chirping for their mommy. He smiled;
turned; looked up and noticed that the
tree was falling down on top of him. He
stretched out his arm so the nest wouldn't
get squashed, but he got squashed real
good instead.
When the people of the lumber town arrived,
they found him under the tree and the small
nest with the birdies chirping for their mommy
in his outstretched arm in his hand saving
them from sure doom. They removed the tree
that was on top of Patty Cake, and the birds
nest from his hand. They placed the nest high
up in a nearby tree. That's the way Patty
Cake would have wanted it.
Then the people of the lumbering town
decided to put a statue in honor of Patty
Cake where he was squashed. So they all chipped
in and had a famous sculpturest sculpt a beautiful
10 foot high likeness of Patty Cake with his
axe over his right shoulder, one foot up on
a log and a big smile on his face. In his
left hand, the sculpter placed a birds nest
with three birdies chirping for their Mommy
as requested by the lumber towns people. The
inscription on the statue read:
Patty Cake, Patty Cake, Lumberjack man,
Chopped down trees as fast as you can,
For 7 feet tall you sure was blessed,
Got squashed by the tree when you saved a
nest.
Now he's gone, he ain't no more,
And the way he lived, it was no chore,
When first we heard we all said, "My
Gosh!",
Poor old Patty Cake, he just got squashed.
Of all the lumberjacks here and gone,
Patty Cake was the best and sure was all brawn,
He never liked to play any games,
And we never, ever made fun of his name.
Good bye Patty Cake!
When the little birdies got a little older,
they gave their own special tributes to Patty
Cake everyday by sitting on the his head.
The
End
Tommy
'The Take Out' Turtle
Down by the river under
an old oak tree there was this huge
rock. Next to this rock was Tommy Turtle.
Everyone called him Tommy The Take Out'
Turtle because he would order his food
over the phone, but by the time he got
there, the restuarant was closed. He
then started having his food delivered.
Much quicker you know.
You see, in his shell, he had all the
comforts of home. He had a couch, a refridgerator,
a stove (which he never used), a telephone,
a television, a bathroom and a bed. He tried
to cook for himself a few times, but his shell
always filled up with smoke and it was hard
for him to breathe so he started calling area
restaurants for take out food to be delivered.
Pizza's, Chinese food, hamburgers, etc. He
never ever had to leave the safety of his
shell.
You may be wondering
how he paid for all these food deliveries.
Years before, he had a race with a hare
and won it. It just so happened, he had
a pretty large bet on himself when everyone
else had bet on the hare and won millions.
Anyways, back to the story.
Because he wasn't getting enough excersize,
he began to grow and grow and grow. One day,
he stood in front of the mirror, shook his
head and decided to do something about it.
So he wanted to jog but tried and tried to
get out of shell to no avail. Each day, he
tried different ways to get out. He lathered
himself up with butter once, oil another time,
and other lubricants but nothing worked. Then
he remembered he had some WD-40 and sprayed
the entrance to the shell and he squeeeeezed
out. He walked around his shell and looked
at it with great thought. Other animals around
watched him curiously because they hadn't
seen him in such a long time and he was so....
so big. He finally decided that what he needed
was a bigger shell.
Just then, Tommy Turtle picked up
his shell and walked past the rock and
the old oak tree, along the river and
up the hill to the road. Just as he
started to cross the road, the hare
he had beat years ago in a race asked
him, "Why are you crossing the
road?"
And Tommy 'The Take Out' Turtle
replied... are you ready?.....
"I'm going to the Shell Station."
The
End
Willie
The Weather Monkey
Willy is a monkey!
Everybody knows it! Everyone had seen
him at one time or another at the city
zoo. He had been the major attraction
there for many years. It was almost
like he was human. He danced and sang
songs, like, 'Fly me To The Moon' and
That's Amore' just to name a few. Before
being captured, he was in the jungle
and was a great poker player but quit
because there was to many cheetahs.
Then he did a stint as the jungle comic.
He told people jokes.
Another talent he had was throwing darts.
The trainer set up a dart board and he would
just fling them darts and hit bulls eyes all
day long. Folks in the crowd would yell out,
"Willie! Hit a 20!" And without
hesitation, he would hit a 20. "Willie!
Hit a 14!" And without hesitation, he
would hit a 14. He would hit any number they
would request.
A trainer got an idea
one evening after watching the weather
report on the 10:00 news. The next day,
the trainer painted different dart boards
with different weather forecasts. He thought
to himself that the people who gave weather
reports out on TV never got the reports
right anyway, so why not let Willie try.
The trainer set up the dart boards in
the cage. One board had snow; another sunny;
another cloudy; another rain; another partly
cloudy; well, you get the idea. Then there
was the dart board with the temperatures on
them. Once he got them all set up, he gave
Willie the darts and asked him, "What's
the weather going to be like today Willie?"
And Willie took a dart and threw at the dart
board with snow on it. He then asked, "What
is the temperature going to be Willie?"
And Willie tossed the dart to the ring that
had 30 degrees. And each time he was pretty
much right on. It was uncanny to see this
happen. It was truly uncanny!
And what a crowd he drew from this new
talent! Thousands would come to see him predict
the weather. One of the owners of a local
TV station had seen him in action and decided
to hire him and fire the old weather forecaster.
Willie was given the new name of, 'Willie
The Weather Monkey'. His darts and boards
were to be set up and each night on TV, millions
were to tune in to see him predict the weather.
On his very first day
on the job, his major debut on television,
he was introduced. Willie took the darts
in hand tossing the first. It landed on
sunshine and the second landed on 80 degrees.
The news broadcaster announced that that
would be the weather for tomorrow. Sunshine
and 80 degrees!!! WOW!!!!
Tomorrow came and the city had 14 inches
of snow and the temperature never got higher
than 25. People were running down the street
in shorts and t-shirts. It was quite a disaster.
When people demanded an apology, none was
given because after all, he was just a monkey
the owner of the TV station shot back! What
did they expect? And Willie sure did make
a monkey out of a lot of people.
Willie was sent back
to the Zoo and had many great laughs with
all the other animals. Especially when
he re-enacted how he took aim and threw
the darts at the wrong weather dart boards.
They would all go bananas! They made him
honorary mayor of the zoo because Willie
Monkey see, Willie Monkey do! There is
only one thing smarter than a monkey and
that my friends is a spelling bee. Tee
hee!
