Story two Sally's Lesson

Candice McCarty

Professor Morgan Peters

English 200-08

December 15, 2011

Friends, come and go but some stay with you and they teach you things about yourself that you never thought you knew. This was never more the case than Sandy and Norbert. These too fish were inseparable as youngsters, and they did everything together. Now they knew that boys and girls weren’t supposed to play together, but they just had a bond that they couldn’t deny. They used to ride the morning current to school together, and play tag at recess every day. Everyone thought they were going to grow up and get married and have a family of their own.

          But one day Sandy woke up and brushed her teeth like normal and waited for Norbert to go to school but when he didn’t come by she figured he was like sick, and went along her way. When she got home her mother told her to sit down. “Sandy, I’m sorry I have to be the one to tell you this, but your friend Norbert got caught in a fisherman’s net while on his way home from the supermarket yesterday.” The words went right through her she was speechless; she swam from the living room and went into her bedroom and cried for hours.

          She couldn’t believe it, “No he’s not gone, this is just some trick they’re playing on me, yeah that’s it” she said that to herself all day until finally it sunk in. Her best friend the one that she had grown up with, and shared her childhood with, was gone and there was nothing she could do about it.

          The very next day, and every day following that for a year Sandy was bitter, she became cold, and wanted no part in anything. She was mean to her parents, and mean to her old friends, and stopped talking to everyone in general. She resented the world, and the people that had taken her best friend away and she couldn’t do anything to bring him back.

          Then one day, on her school graduation, the one that Norbert was supposed to be with there with her she told herself. “Norbert wouldn’t want me to be this way; he would want me to have good friends, to live life the way he wanted to, to be free to explore the possibilities.” She realized that day that she had to go on and live her life to make her best friend watching down on her in heaven proud, proud that she was strong enough to make it in this cruel world, strong enough to know that she could do it on her own, that she had enough strength inside of her to live up to their expectations, and strong enough to live life.

          Her friend although he never said it to her taught her a lot about life. He taught her strength, love, friendship, kindness, and forgiveness. Although the world took something away from her, she knew that is was all God’s plan and he only did it for the best. She was meant to stay in this ocean because she had a purpose, and although it was going to be hard, she was going to do it with the memory of her best friend always close to heart.

Story three Buzz the Lazy Bee

Candice McCarty

Professor Morgan Peters

English 200-08

December 15, 2011

One day there was a worker bee named Buzz and he was the laziest bee in the hive. All day he would sit around and sleep while all the other worker bees went out to gather nectar to make the honey. Every bee, as accustomed to the beehive law had to gather 50 grams of nectar by the end of the season before winter came. Buzz always said, “I can get that in a week, no big deal” and always put off his duty until another day.

Now all the other bees had watched year after year, as Buzz never filled his quota and this year they warned him that if he didn’t make it, they were going to demote him from flying bee and make him a hive bee where he would make the honey all day long and stay stuck inside the hive. Buzz was afraid of this, but he never made the effort to make sure he met his quota.

One day Burt, his friend came to him, “Buzz, winter’s almost here, the flowers are dying more and more every day, you better start collecting.” Buzz simply brushed it off and said, “I can’t get it in a week, no big deal.” Well the weeks started coming, and going, and Buzz did nothing but sleep them away. Finally early one morning he arose to a fierce cold draft sweeping through the hive, and then he knew Burt was right and headed off to get his nectar.

The hours grew longer, and the night was approaching, and Buzz knew he was in trouble when he couldn’t find one live flower. “Oh no, what am I going to do, this is going to take months to get 50 grams of nectar at this rate!” And for the next four weeks of fall, the trees started shedding their leaves, and snow started covering the grass, and Buzz flew on with frozen wings, looking for a live flower.

Then the time had come for the scores to be tallied, and the numbers to be crunched. When his name was called Mr. Buzzington called him to the front. “Buzz, I must say your number was most disappointing this year, you barely managed to make 10 grams.” “But let me explain,” Buzz pleaded, “there were no more flowers left and I traveled miles and miles.” “Well then,” Mr. Buzzington said, “you shouldn’t have waited until the last minute, turn in your flying hat and report to the honeyroom at 8:00 a.m. sharp tomorrow morning.”

            From that day on, Buzz worked as a hive bee, and never got to fly outside or take naps, again. He learned that procrastination leads to nothing but despair. 

Story Two Sally's Lesson

Candice McCarty

Professor Morgan Peters

English 200-08

December 15, 2011

Friends, come and go but some stay with you and they teach you things about yourself that you never thought you knew. This was never more the case than Sandy and Norbert. These too fish were inseparable as youngsters, and they did everything together. Now they knew that boys and girls weren’t supposed to play together, but they just had a bond that they couldn’t deny. They used to ride the morning current to school together, and play tag at recess every day. Everyone thought they were going to grow up and get married and have a family of their own.

          But one day Sandy woke up and brushed her teeth like normal and waited for Norbert to go to school but when he didn’t come by she figured he was like sick, and went along her way. When she got home her mother told her to sit down. “Sandy, I’m sorry I have to be the one to tell you this, but your friend Norbert got caught in a fisherman’s net while on his way home from the supermarket yesterday.” The words went right through her she was speechless; she swam from the living room and went into her bedroom and cried for hours.

          She couldn’t believe it, “No he’s not gone, this is just some trick they’re playing on me, yeah that’s it” she said that to herself all day until finally it sunk in. Her best friend the one that she had grown up with, and shared her childhood with, was gone and there was nothing she could do about it.

          The very next day, and every day following that for a year Sandy was bitter, she became cold, and wanted no part in anything. She was mean to her parents, and mean to her old friends, and stopped talking to everyone in general. She resented the world, and the people that had taken her best friend away and she couldn’t do anything to bring him back.

          Then one day, on her school graduation, the one that Norbert was supposed to be with there with her she told herself. “Norbert wouldn’t want me to be this way; he would want me to have good friends, to live life the way he wanted to, to be free to explore the possibilities.” She realized that day that she had to go on and live her life to make her best friend watching down on her in heaven proud, proud that she was strong enough to make it in this cruel world, strong enough to know that she could do it on her own, that she had enough strength inside of her to live up to their expectations, and strong enough to live life.

          Her friend although he never said it to her taught her a lot about life. He taught her strength, love, friendship, kindness, and forgiveness. Although the world took something away from her, she knew that is was all God’s plan and he only did it for the best. She was meant to stay in this ocean because she had a purpose, and although it was going to be hard, she was going to do it with the memory of her best friend always close to heart.

Story One Phoebe the Penguin

Candice McCarty

Professor Morgan Peters

English 200-08

December 15, 2011

Phoebe was a very lonely penguin. Instead of swimming, and playing outside with all the other penguins at Crooked Creek, she stayed inside her igloo and kept to herself. It isn’t that she didn’t want to play with everyone else, she did but Phoebe always got picked on, and didn’t have any friends. In school, she sat in the very first seat, and always knew the answers to Mrs. Otter’s questions, but outside the classroom the other’s made fun of her crooked teeth, and short haircut. Every day in English class, Felicia Finns would hide her glasses and everyone would laugh at her while she anxiously tried to find them. Boys never even looked her way, and she never got asked out on a date. Over time Phoebe just preferred to be by herself where she was always liked.

One day Felicia came into school wearing the newest oil shine to make her feathers shine, and soon all the other girl penguins did so too. Phoebe’s mom came into her room one afternoon and said, “Phoebe why don’t you go outside and play with your friends?” “Because I don’t want to mom I want to stay in here and read, plus they don’t like me because I don’t have shinny feathers like all the other girls.” She replied. “But darling, we can go get you some right now if you want.” “No thank you mom,” she said, “I don’t want to be all sticky and slimy with that stuff on my feathers, it might drip onto my school work anyways.” Then off she went with her studies.

Over time as the children of Crooked Creek grew up, Phoebe did too, and boy did she grow out of her awkward days. Her dark brunette hair grew long, and she styled it to look perfect around her face, her feathers had grown in to a dark shade of charcoal black, and her green eyes sparkled behind her newly fitted glasses. When all the children had reached Seaport High School, everyone really seemed to notice Phoebe’s new burst of confidence and beauty. All the boys started asking her out on dates, and though she liked the attention, she never forgot the way the boys had called her “Beaver tooth” as children.  

One day at the beginning of class, her English class had assigned projects, and who else did her teacher pair her up with than Felicia Finn. This was the last person that Phoebe wanted to be paired up with but she knew she could stand up to her now.

“Hey beaver tooth, how’s the weather down in ugly town?” Felicia said as she walked over to Phoebe. “Look can we just do the project, I really don’t want to fight” was all Phoebe said to her. Well the entire time that they had to work on the project, Felicia did nothing but tease Phoebe, telling her that her clothes were ugly, spilling coffee on Phoebe’s notebook, and “loosing” all the notes Phoebe wrote for the paper. Phoebe had the perfect plan to get her back.

The day it was due, Phoebe went into class early to set up, and when it was their turn to present the presentation, Phoebe pretending she was sick and she couldn’t talk so that meant Felicia had to give their speech. Now Phoebe knew that she had done all the work, and it would show everyone and the teacher that Felicia didn’t help her and she would be left speechless. And that was just the case, Felicia stood there and didn’t know what to say, and turned fire engine red when the teacher called on her to present. She ran crying from the room, and Phoebe took over and explained that she had done the entire project, and gave her presentation for a perfect A.

Felicia learned a valuable lesson that day, she may have outsmarted others into doing her work, but there will always be someone smarter than you who will bring you down. She may have pushed Phoebe but she could never break her down.

two feasts

Candice McCarty

Professor Morgan Peters

English 200-08

December 15, 2011

Have you ever deliberately done something cruel to someone else? Everyone does, it is human nature. Natural enemies like a dog and cat, a snake and a rat, and like this story, a spider and a tortoise will always be at each other’s throats trying to outdo the other. In The Feast on the Mountain and the Feast Under the Water folktale, it shows just how you can outsmart someone, but to make sure that you don’t get outsmarted back.

            In the first Feast, the spider Anansi invites all the animals to come and eat with him. However when tortoise arrives, Anansi comes up with a plan to trick tortoise so he does not get to eat. Before eating that the table, Anansi tells his guests that in order to eat at his table, all the animals must wash their hands and cannot eat until they are clean. So Tortoise goes down to the river and washes his hands, yet when he returns back to the table his hands are dirty again from the climb up the mountain. He sees what Anansi is trying to do and decides to leave the table and goes back home.

            Now when it was Tortoise’s time to throw his feast, he told everyone that they would be eating that the bottom of the river where he lived. When Anansi heard this he knew he would never be able to sit down at the table since he was so small and light he would simply just float on top of the water. So he stuffed his jacket pockets with rocks, and sank down at the table with everyone else. When Tortoise arrived he announced to the table that all guests had to remove their jackets in order to eat at his feast. When Anansi heard this he tried to reason with Tortoise to which he explained that is he had to follow the rules of his table, in return Anansi had to follow the rules of his.

            So in the end, Tortoise came out on top, and in life one must realize that although you might be able to outsmart someone, there will always be someone who is smarter than you. Also this story teaches you that if you are cruel to someone, one day it will come back to haunt you. Now if Anansi hadn’t been so cruel to Tortoise, than he would have gotten to eat at his table with everyone else instead of getting nothing to eat. Being cruel never gets you anywhere far, and instead of gaining what you might want, you only end up hurting yourself.

why dogs chase cats

Candice McCarty

Professor Morgan Peters

English 200-08

December 15, 2011

  Dogs and Cats are natural born enemies; this is true in every culture, every story, and every cartoon story. Dogs and Cats were just not meant to be on the same side. In an old Virginian Tale by S.E. Schlosser, Why Dogs Chase Cats the reason why they hate each other is told in a comical and symbolic way. Here Dog and Cat are married, and every night Dog is told by his wife that she is too sick to make dinner. One day Dog gets suspicious of his wife’s behavior and hides in the house to watch what she does with her daily routine.

            When Cat thinks that Dog has left, she plays with Kitten all day long and doesn’t seem the least bit sick, when Dog reveals himself to Cat, she sticks marbles in her mouth and pretends to have a toothache, and Dog becomes so mad that he chases her around, a chase that is still going on to this day.

            Not only does this story give a comical way of showing why these animals are always chasing each other, but it does represent some important marriage issues in humans. The man goes to work, while the wife stays at home and cleans; then he comes home and expects dinner. Also when the wife is home all day, the husband is left to sit and become suspicious over what his wife does all day while at home. It depicts all the human characteristics of marriage.

            Now who is to say that this is meant for the meaning behind the story, but in a way it is a story in itself, it entertains, it explains a lesson, it has a purpose, so I say it does its job right. Folklore is meant for animals to take on human characteristics and this story does nothing else but that. It tells a story, it has a lesson to be learned, and the characters are well defined and serve a purpose.

www.americanfolklore.net

http://www.sacred-texts.com