STORYTIME TAPESTRY

The Newsletter devoted to spreading love and cultural awareness throughout the world

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Jan 10, 2006? 

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Animal awareness series endorsed by Shiloh and Hank our mascots; all stories must receive their approval.

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TOBY

Sharon Byrant

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It was the last day of school for the year.?  I was in the 5th grade, my brother, Frankie, was in the second grade.?  I had left for school that morning happy, knowing I would have a summer of not having to wake up at 6:00 A.M.? Monday through Friday.

Frankie and I stood at the end of our driveway that morning waiting for the bus.

"Wait until we get home today, I've got a surprise," he said.?  "What kind of surprise?" I asked him.?  "You will see," he replied.

I got more than a surprise when school let out that day.?  Of course, I didn't find the surprise until we got home.

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On the bus ride home, I was sitting near the front and Frankie was in a seat in the back.?  I kept turning around, catching his eye, wondering what this big surprise was going to be.?  All he did was keep grinning at me.?  I was sure a seven-year-old couldn't have THAT big of a surprise.?  Other than finding out there wasn't a Santa, what could a kid that age keep a secret about, one that was a surprise?

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When we got home, he ran right down to the basement.?  Mom was cooking in the kitchen so she didn't notice him dashing down that long staircase.?  Dad was at work, and I was the only other person in the house.?  Naturally, I followed him.

We had two "cold cellars" in the basement where mom kept her canned goods.?  I saw Frankie had entered one of them and had turned the light on.?  I went into the cold cellar with him and saw him unwrapping a small blanket.?  I leaned forward to see what he had, when suddenly I screamed.?  He had a monster.?  A live monster.?  Green, ugly, and he looked like he was part dinosaur.

"His name is Toby," Frankie said.?  "Where did you GET this thing?" I asked.?  "My teacher asked if someone wanted to take him home for the summer and I raised my hand, so I get to keep him all summer," he said.

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I knew that was impossible.?  My mom would NEVER allow us to have anything in the house that looked like that.?  "He's a lizard, and he can change colors," Frankie said.?  "But we have to keep him where it's warm.?  I'm going to hide him in my closet," he said.

I knew that wasn't good because if mom saw him when she went to put Frankie's clothes in his closet, I just knew we would both be in big trouble.

So we hid Toby under the wash sink in the basement.?  He had a hidey hole he could go into.?  Frankie tied a piece of heavy string to Toby's one leg and he tied the other end to the water pipe.

Mom never used the wash sink and it was next to the dryer, another thing she rarely used, so we were sure Toby was safe from her seeing and finding him.

All that summer, we would go down in the basement and play with Toby.?  He learned to come when you called him, and he loved to crawl up our legs and get on our shoulders.?  We snuck him food from the kitchen.

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One morning at breakfast mom said that she was going to clean the basement up really good.?  We knew we had to take Toby and hide him somewhere else until the day was over.?  So we hid him in my closet and tied him to my old piano leg.?  He turned brown overnight, so we decided we better take him back down in the basement and tie him near the water pipes again after Mom cleaned the basement.

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My mom was always an early riser.?  She ironed daily and she would stack our clothes on the couch and tell us to take them to our room.?  I used to carry my dad's shorts into her bedroom and put them in the dresser for her.?  That was the only time I ever saw my dad's shorts..........until..........that day.

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It was a Saturday morning.?  I remember the sun wasn't even up yet.?  We lived in an older two-story farmhouse, the type with the floor "registers" that you could put your ear on one in the upper floor and hear the conversations going on downstairs.

Even today, after all these years, it still amazes me at how loud a scream can be and travel through those registers.

I was in a deep sleep when I heard my mom scream.?  Frankie and Dad heard it too, because we all ran out of our rooms. ?  I was first, so I ran downstairs as fast as I could.?  Frankie was behind me.?  Dad was lagging behind Frankie.

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When I reached the basement.......gee, as long as I live, I will never forget what I saw.?  Mom was holding onto the sink in the basement, but her legs were spread far? from her arms and the sink.?  She looked like she was ready to fall and had she let go of the sink she would have.?  She was shaking and screaming, "Get it OFF of me."?  I saw Toby crawling up her body; he was on her thigh.?  Mom was shaking her legs so bad I don't know how Toby held on, but he did.

Frankie ran up behind me and said, "Oh oh," but instead of trying to grab Toby and get him off mom, he started snickering.

That's when dad appeared.?  In his shorts.?  The same shorts mom ironed and had me put in his dresser.?  I never knew they were so long and came so close to his knees until that day!

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Dad stopped dead in his tracks and stared at Toby and Mom and said, "WHAT is THAT?"?  Mom was still screaming "Get it OFF of me."?  Dad didn't seem to want to try and grab Toby, so Frankie went up to mom and said, "Come on Toby."?  Toby gladly crawled onto Frankie's arm.

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Have you ever seen anyone who you KNOW wants to kill you??  Have you ever seen eyes that can actually glare right into your brain??  Have you ever seen a human whose face can turn as red as a tomato??  Mom's did.?  Mom because a screaming maniac even after Toby was removed from her body.?  But dad, poor dad, he made a deadly mistake that morning.?  He began laughing, so I started laughing as well as Frankie.?  That's when I knew the look mom gave all of us, she would have killed any or all of us if she could have gotten away with it.

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She was screaming, "Get that THING out of my house NOW!"?  I tried to tell her Toby was a pet, not a monster, but she wouldn't listen to me.?  Dad even said, "Now, he doesn't seem THAT bad."?  Mom glared at him and told us all to either get that creature out of her house or she was moving out.?  In a split second, all I could think of was, "Who's going to cook our meals??  Who's going to wash and iron all the clothes??  Who's going to bake those good rolls she always made."?  And "Who's going to clean the house?"

I knew then we had to find Toby another hiding place.

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Mom thought we gave Toby away to the kid down the block for the rest of the summer.?  She didn't know he had a nice warm place deep in my closet.?  Frankie and I had to whisper to Toby when we wanted to play with him and talk to him.?  Mom and dad never knew we had that lizard the rest of the summer.?  On the first day of school, Frankie wrapped Toby back up in a blanket and we snuck him out of the house and on the bus.?  We got to school just fine and he was returned to the teacher.

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During our youth years, unknown to mom, hidden in different places in the house, we had many little creatures.?  When the bird eggs were? laid and the mama bird got into the living room, I remember mom screaming, "There's going to be a death, there's going to be a death, there's a bird that got into the house."?  Frankie and I couldn't tell her that bird had BEEN in the house for a while, but we took the eggs and moved them outside, caught the mama bird and she hatched her babies in the old oak tree next to the old well house.

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We kept the snapping turtle hidden in Frankie's closet.?  We would have kept him longer but boy, he was starting to get big and the box became too small for him.?  If we got a bigger box, surely mom would have found it.

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Years later after I'd grown up, married, had a family of my own, I told mom one day about all the little creatures that had lived in our house unknown to her.?  "Where?" she asked, "Where did you have them?"?  I told her some of the hiding places.?  Even as old as I was, she still glared at me!

Sharon

P.S.

Nanci Stroupe??™s "Larry the Lizard triggered this memory."? ? 

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Sharon Bryant

1946 @bellsouth.net

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About Me:

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I am Sharon Bryant,? 59 years old and reside in Alabama. I lost my child in 1977 when he was five and I write articles on bereavement often. I am a chocolate/candy maker and also a wood crafter and knitter. I am married to a wonderful man, and have two remaining children, a daughter 26,
Amy, and a second son, Randy, age 24.

My main goal in life is to help those who
have lost a child. My website is: www.angelsremembered.tk

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Today's Queue Stories
~**~**~**~

A True Friend

Sharlett Hunt

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?  In the mid-seventies I got a hankering to go to cosmetology school.?  I had always had a knack for cutting hair and thought this would be something I could somehow make a career.?  A hairdresser.?  People were always going to have a haircut as long as we have hair.?  This was my logic at the time.? 

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?  I cut and I curled.?  I permed and I colored.?  I learned how to do manicures.?  I learned all the basics of good grooming.?  I was young, mid twenties and life was a blast.?  I felt that Miss Kay's Beauty School had been my destiny as I attended classes six days a week.

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?  Nelson enrolled and I had a new friend.?  He was shy and had trouble making friends at first.?  I had a big mouth, even then, and invited him to lunch and he finally accepted.?  I found out later that Miss Kay really didn't want him going to lunch with me as I was considered one of the "wild ones".

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?  We became good friends, I recognizing that he did a great manicure, therefore turning most of my manicures over to Nelson.?  I was so busy.?  Beauty school was a breeze and I was already one of the chosen stylists of a big part of Miss Kay's clients.? 

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?  One day I decided to give Nelson a class in haircutting as he wanted to learn to cut like me.?  He would always come around and watch, eager to learn the trade and perhaps become the next big star in a movie, like "Shampoo," which was popular at the time with John Travolta charming the ladies.? 

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?  It was thought to be a money game but in reality hairdressing is a lot of hard work.?  Gruesome hours and some who are never satisfied with their own looks.?  I spent many hours convincing someone a style would not look as good on them as a picture they had brought me because their hair is different.? 

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?  I graduated some months before my good friend and we stayed in touch for quite a few years afterward.?  Then life happened and we somehow drifted into our own things separately, yet I always wondered about him.?  I had come to care deeply for this man who was so secure in his ability to feel for people.

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?  My friend and neighbor, Joan, asked me to go to the Farmers Market here in Lakeland, a couple months ago.?  I agreed as I love to go see the sights, find many bargains, and love the fresh vegetables that are for sale.?  I had no idea what was about to occur.

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?  I walked into the covered tent of sorts and was looking over the wares.?  Our eyes met.?  His sparkled behind the counter.?  I was ready at the cash register with the items I had chosen to buy and all he said was, "Sharlett".?  Time stood still.?  He said, "I'll bet you don't even know who I am."?  Of course I did.?  It was my Nelson.

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?  This is almost thirty years later that we have found each other again.?  Twenty eight to be exact.?  Longer than some people are old.? 

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?  We have found a new friendship that developed many years ago.?  The love that is there is so wonderful, I rejoice.?  God has sent the man with the sparkle in his eye back to me after all these years.?  I ask myself why and I know the answer.?  It is just because I needed him.?  He is the family I never had.? 

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?  We still dream dreams together and have hopes of tomorrow.?  He is amazingly like me.?  If I need something, all I do is ask and he will do it for me.?  Not to be taken advantage of, friendship is so special.?  He? has taught me the true meaning of the word.

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Sharlette863 @aol.com


About Me:

I was born in Alabama, the middle of seven children. At about age four we moved to Central Florida and I have lived here most of my life. I am a Viet Nam Era Veteran. I have always enjoyed writing and as I get older it seems to come more naturally to me. I believe everyone has many stories inside them and some are blessed to be able to share them.
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Poetry Section

~**~**~

DAY AND NIGHT

Gautami Tripathy

Day and night
two sides of life.
Day refreshes,
night rejuvenates

I drink on life
in the brightness
of the day.
And ponder over it
in the darkness
of the night

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Soulful Haikus

Gautami Tripathy

Leisurely, subtly;
flee the torrential tempest;
the tormented soul.

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Liberated, freed
yesteryear's tortuous past;
a new beginning.

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Poignant memories,
shadowing beneath the sun;
Darkness magnified

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(c)gautami tripathy 2005

blog:http://firmlyrooted.blogspot.com
e-mail:s_gautami@yahoo.com

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Prayer Requests and Updates

? Today has been the clearest day in a long time for Nikki.?  There was no confusion.. she was thinking, talking and acting alert.?  The doctor's are saying though, that because her body is coming back to life her senses are also coming back to life.?  She is in so much pain...it began in her spine and has since gone from her neck down.? ?  However, Nikki is happy to be alive and is trying to handle the pain as best she can.?  A lot of people have asked what her normal blood count should be... The doctor says that she was at the lowest she could be at .1.. it was nearly nothing and what there was came from the blood transfusions she had to have.?  She stayed that way for almost three weeks.?  Today she was 1.0?  ten points up.?  When she reaches 5.0 she'll be doing good... when she goes up to 7.0 -10.0 she'll be great.?  He wants to reach above 7.0 before moving on to any more chemo ...? The fever has totally broke and hasn't returned for a 24 hour period.?  Antibiotics are going to continue for her for at least another week.? ?  Thank you again for everything,?  with all our love, Al

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? SENIOR WRITERS

Chief Writer: Sharon Bryant

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? Agee, Vance;? Apted, Violet;? Baker, Kathy; Batt, Al;?  Berry, Nell; Blaine, Pamela

Boda, Ginger;? ? Buhagiar, Victor; Cassady, B.J.;?  Cavalera, Robyn; Crider, Mark;? 

Deming, Barb; Doherty, Maria; Gilbert, Robert Jr; Goodier, Steve; Halley, Ellie Braun;

Harris, Kathy Anne;? Hunt, Sharlette;? Hymes, Christina

Jacobson, Gary;? Kiser, Roger Dean; Kerens, Claudia; Kevin, Tim Jenkins, Pamela;

Liles, Norma; Lilly, Jodi Flesberg; Lock, Joyce; Mazzella, Joe;? Morris, Deepak;

Ojeigbe, Georgewaters;

?  Petry, Dianna Doles; Roberts, Susan;?  Shiveley, Debra; Shaw, Bob; Sims, Richard; Streidel, Saskia; Swarner, Ken; Vaknin, Sam; Verhoeff, Jan

Walker, Bill; Walker, Joe;? Warner, Gorden K; Walsh, Sue

Weymouth, Barbara; Whirity, Kathy;? White, Robert;

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STORYTIME TAPESTRY STAFF

Publisher: Carol Roach-founder

Moderator: Thelma Hartselle-co founder

Moderator: Clara Westerfer

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