A good story
11/12/22 00:48
Most of the time I shy away from telling other people’s stories in my journal. I tried to take a similar approach to my preaching, but there are some stories that are too good not to retell, and there are times when a preacher does have permission to tell another’s story. Today is one of those times when the story is too good not to share with others.
Our eleven-year-old grandson went to a birthday party yesterday. It is the beginning of a round of parties among his peers when they turn 12. His good friend was celebrating yesterday. Our grandson will celebrate in early February. The party took place at a skating rink. It is one of those timeless small town businesses that has been around, with nearly the same business plan, since the 1950’s. When roller blades became in fashion, they added the inline skates and opened up for speed skating during some of their hours. When electronic games became available they replaced some of the pinball machines and expanded their arcade. The core of their business is still the same. They have a smooth concrete floor and an open area where people can roller skate. They rent skates and around the skating arena are tables. They sell refreshments for the people to eat. In the words of our grandson, “It is party food. You know it is pizza. It isn’t good pizza. It tastes like cardboard, but it is pizza.”
The children attending the party were each given a $20 bill to play the games in the arcade. Our grandson doesn’t get to see a $20 bill very often. I’m thinking that it turned out to be a rather expensive party for the hosts. I’m not sure we would have chosen the same approach. Anyway, each kid had a bill. Apparently there were machines in the arcade where you could insert a $20 bill and receive 20 $1 bills to play 20 individual games. That was our grandson’s intention when he inserted his $20 bill in a slot. However, it was not a change machine. It was a game. And the game didn’t give change. Our son was stuck with 20 rounds of the same game on the same machine. The game awarded rubber duckies as prizes and after 20 rounds, our grandson had mastered the game. He even learned how to win more than one duckie in a single round of the game. After what seemed to him to be a very long time of playing the same game over and over again, he had 22 duckies.
Our grandson didn’t even want a single rubber duckie. They weren’t really rubber. They were plastic and they were pretty small.
With his arms literally full of duckies, he hatched a plan. He went up to every child in the skating rink and offered each a duckie. Most took him up on the offer. When one child said he didn’t want a duckie, our grandson asked the child’s grandmother. She accepted one. After a while our grandson was down to five duckies, which he brought home and gave to his sisters.
Of course he got much more for the $20 he was given than many of the other children at the party. He got a few trinkets to give to his sisters. And he got a wonderful story. He entertained our whole family with the story last night and I’m sure he will have a lot more opportunities to tell it. His mother was working late last night and she hasn’t heard it yet, but she will get to hear it this morning. And I’m thinking it is the kind of story that one tells over and over again. I have a few stories from my childhood that I’ve been telling all of my life. Almost everyone who knows me has heard stories about trying to manage baby donkeys for Palm Sunday at church. And there is the story of me singing the third verse of “We Three Kings” as a child, while my friends got to sing about Gold and Frankincense. I’ve got a whole lot of stories from before I was a teenager that I tell on a fairly regular basis, and now our grandson has a great story to tell.
For a long time - probably for the rest of my life - I’ll be able to bring a smile to his face just by singing the “Rubber Duckie” song.
$20 for a story you can tell for the rest of your life is a pretty good bargain in my opinion. He might remember his friend’s 12th birthday even longer than his friend does. I’m not inclined to select that kind of a venue for adventures with children, but I might make an exception for that particular skating rink. I think I might get a kick out of taking our grandson and some of his friends to that place. I might even fund a few games at the arcade for them, something that I don’t usually do. They have already had the experience of me taking them bowling and refusing to fund games in the arcade at the bowling alley. Perhaps I’m missing an opportunity. I’ve certainly spend a lot of money on books with stories over the span of my life. I’ve also given a considerable amount of money to strangers who have asked me for money. When I get a good story, I never bother to check it out. Since I am accustomed to paying for fiction, I don’t shy away from giving a few dollars to someone who tells me a good story. I’ve even done so when I know that the story can’t possibly be true.
Our grandson has a story that he knows is true. After a lifetime of telling the story, it might be a bit farther from the truth than the version we heard yesterday. Maybe when he is my age, his prowess at the game will be bigger and the venue will have attracted more children. But I’m pretty sure that he’ll always tell that he went up to every child in the place and offered each a duck.
You have to admit he’s got a pretty good story.
Our eleven-year-old grandson went to a birthday party yesterday. It is the beginning of a round of parties among his peers when they turn 12. His good friend was celebrating yesterday. Our grandson will celebrate in early February. The party took place at a skating rink. It is one of those timeless small town businesses that has been around, with nearly the same business plan, since the 1950’s. When roller blades became in fashion, they added the inline skates and opened up for speed skating during some of their hours. When electronic games became available they replaced some of the pinball machines and expanded their arcade. The core of their business is still the same. They have a smooth concrete floor and an open area where people can roller skate. They rent skates and around the skating arena are tables. They sell refreshments for the people to eat. In the words of our grandson, “It is party food. You know it is pizza. It isn’t good pizza. It tastes like cardboard, but it is pizza.”
The children attending the party were each given a $20 bill to play the games in the arcade. Our grandson doesn’t get to see a $20 bill very often. I’m thinking that it turned out to be a rather expensive party for the hosts. I’m not sure we would have chosen the same approach. Anyway, each kid had a bill. Apparently there were machines in the arcade where you could insert a $20 bill and receive 20 $1 bills to play 20 individual games. That was our grandson’s intention when he inserted his $20 bill in a slot. However, it was not a change machine. It was a game. And the game didn’t give change. Our son was stuck with 20 rounds of the same game on the same machine. The game awarded rubber duckies as prizes and after 20 rounds, our grandson had mastered the game. He even learned how to win more than one duckie in a single round of the game. After what seemed to him to be a very long time of playing the same game over and over again, he had 22 duckies.
Our grandson didn’t even want a single rubber duckie. They weren’t really rubber. They were plastic and they were pretty small.
With his arms literally full of duckies, he hatched a plan. He went up to every child in the skating rink and offered each a duckie. Most took him up on the offer. When one child said he didn’t want a duckie, our grandson asked the child’s grandmother. She accepted one. After a while our grandson was down to five duckies, which he brought home and gave to his sisters.
Of course he got much more for the $20 he was given than many of the other children at the party. He got a few trinkets to give to his sisters. And he got a wonderful story. He entertained our whole family with the story last night and I’m sure he will have a lot more opportunities to tell it. His mother was working late last night and she hasn’t heard it yet, but she will get to hear it this morning. And I’m thinking it is the kind of story that one tells over and over again. I have a few stories from my childhood that I’ve been telling all of my life. Almost everyone who knows me has heard stories about trying to manage baby donkeys for Palm Sunday at church. And there is the story of me singing the third verse of “We Three Kings” as a child, while my friends got to sing about Gold and Frankincense. I’ve got a whole lot of stories from before I was a teenager that I tell on a fairly regular basis, and now our grandson has a great story to tell.
For a long time - probably for the rest of my life - I’ll be able to bring a smile to his face just by singing the “Rubber Duckie” song.
$20 for a story you can tell for the rest of your life is a pretty good bargain in my opinion. He might remember his friend’s 12th birthday even longer than his friend does. I’m not inclined to select that kind of a venue for adventures with children, but I might make an exception for that particular skating rink. I think I might get a kick out of taking our grandson and some of his friends to that place. I might even fund a few games at the arcade for them, something that I don’t usually do. They have already had the experience of me taking them bowling and refusing to fund games in the arcade at the bowling alley. Perhaps I’m missing an opportunity. I’ve certainly spend a lot of money on books with stories over the span of my life. I’ve also given a considerable amount of money to strangers who have asked me for money. When I get a good story, I never bother to check it out. Since I am accustomed to paying for fiction, I don’t shy away from giving a few dollars to someone who tells me a good story. I’ve even done so when I know that the story can’t possibly be true.
Our grandson has a story that he knows is true. After a lifetime of telling the story, it might be a bit farther from the truth than the version we heard yesterday. Maybe when he is my age, his prowess at the game will be bigger and the venue will have attracted more children. But I’m pretty sure that he’ll always tell that he went up to every child in the place and offered each a duck.
You have to admit he’s got a pretty good story.
