15 Aug 2007 12:50 PM

How My 'Grandpa' Storytelling Began

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(Time: about 25 years ago)��� 

I reside in one city, my grandchildren in another about a thousand miles distant. During one of my rare visits, and with her mother\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s permission and help, we bundled up my two-year old granddaughter and tucked her into her stroller. Off we went, grandpa and granddaughter, to explore the neighborhood.

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We paused to examine a spider\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s web that spanned a space between two shrubs. A rain shower had passed a short while before and droplets festooned the web\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s strands and rainbow-sparkled in the morning\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s fresh sunlight. Standing there, both of us leaned forward to peer into the web, I wove a story that transformed the sparkling strands into a carnival and the spider into an acrobat. Granddaughter\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s eyes widened with wonder.

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We continued on and stopped at a house to observe a cat on the porch play with a yellow ball. I wove another tale, this time of a cat and a strange ball that bounced too high and disappeared into a cloud. Again, my granddaughter\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s expression showed her pleasure in hearing grandpa\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s story. For the remainder of my visit, and during subsequent visits, I told her, and when he was old enough, my grandson, of the world around us and how we hoped to, some day, live all together in friendship with all living things, on Planet Earth.

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Visits, in either direction were infrequent. Adult-oriented telephone calls usually left only brief moments to interact with grandchildren. Long distance calls just didn\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t generate the right ambiance and enough time for the relaxed chatting and easy listening that goes naturally between the young and the elderly. Then, too, at the close of an adult telephone conversation youngsters are usually busy elsewhere at other interests, and sometimes grandpas just don\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t do well at chatting.

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In my situation, I began to fill the gap with hand-scribed and, later on, typed stories. The letter-stories lengthened our telephone chats to devising plots for new stories, flesh-out characters, settings, and scenes. There are no better aids to a grandparent-grandchild telephone or email story conference than our faithful friends Who, What, Where, When, Why and How.

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In my situation, one letter, and later, email story followed another, often illustrated with pictures from old magazines. When I couldn\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'t find a just-right illustration, I laboriously sketched an all-thumbs grandpa original. It was an enjoyable experience for me, and feedback from the family showed it was fun -- and eventual remembrance -- for our progeny.

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