Funny stories, we all have them. Some are funnier than others. During this back-to school transition period, so many of the stories that tumble out before beginning a new year together are hilarious; others not so much. Most of tales that include kid’s antics are the best.
The adult stories remembered from childhood are usually too long or filled with non-important details. The kids’ oral stories are often brief and funnier. One might think that the age-old first-day school assignment, “What I Did This Summer” would not be so difficult to write. The remembrance of those once-in-a-summer favorite experiences, the true “story within the story” often gets left behind. Writing “small” and focusing on one specific event helps when the story is told out loud. All the tangled details come unraveled smoothly. The “big picture” broad statements, such as “I went in the pool” rather than I “dove off the diving board, kicked off from the bottom of the pool, and came up minus one big toenail.”
Even the smallest children often add their own take on something that appeared to be a routine same-old, same-old summer experience.
The teachers’ own return to their classrooms find a number of their peers entertaining each other with an examples of riveting, very short tall tales. Those could be perfect example for a first day back to school essay. A new way of keeping that old tradition would start with the classroom teacher’s favorite part of the summer: “Let me tell you about what I did this summer.”
By DOLLY VISCARDI
Special to the Herald Times
