Will, the Halloween Birthday Boy!
Have I mentioned I'm a room parent for Will's class this year? It's a nice gig, because everyone's insanely grateful to you for doing it (so they don't have to), and after the beginning of the year it's not all that much work.
My fellow room parent is a truly lovely woman, but I must say I think she picked the wrong year to RP, as not only is she working fulltime, she's also doing coursework in her field. So she's sending out reminder messages with the wrong date, and then sending out corrected reminder messages, only this time with the wrong time. Oops! So then I have to send out a correction to correct the correction.
The thing that gets me is that when I send out the correction to the correction, there's always one parent who emails me, not having actually read the correction to the correction, and tells me that the information I've sent out is incorrect. So then I have to gently correct him (and yes, it's a him, and yes I'm beginning to understand the source of his child's myriad social problems), which usually ends the cycle ... until the next time. And there's always a next time.
Last week, I volunteered at the class Halloween party. I do this every year, because Halloween is Will's birthday (Will is ten! Yikes!). We finished all the planned activities with twenty minutes left in the period, so we sat in a circle and told ghost stories. If you want to have fun, ask a group of kids to tell you ghost stories. They tell the exact same stories you heard and told as a kid! I'd love to find out where they got their stories from. I'd bet older siblings and cousins. I don't remember my parents ever telling me ghost stories, and I've never told any--at least any of the old standbys--to Will or Jack.
Here's a funny thing: Today I was a driver for a class field trip (I know, I know--I'm a saint), and I was telling one of the moms about what a great job her daughter did telling ghost stories at the party last week. "She knows a bunch!" I said, and the mom looked at me wide-eyed, like, really? She said she had no idea her daughter knew any ghost stories and furthermore, Mia was a real scaredy-cat. I thought that was so interesting. Was Mia trying to be brave by telling the stories? Was there something cathartic for her about telling them? Or does she have her mom totally fooled?
So anyway, do you remember the scary stories you and your friends told each other when you were kids? The one that I found deliciously terrifying was about the babysitter who gets a call from someone who's threatening bloody murder when suddenly the police break through on the line and say, "Get out now! The call is coming from inside the house!"
Not a ghost story per se, but boy did it send tingles up and down my spine!
7 comments:
Happy Birthday, Will. What a handsome boy you have. I've often wondered where the ghost stories got started. Used to scare me to death listening to all those stories and especially those like what you describe with the call coming from inside the house. Freaky stuff!
Happy Birthday to Will - he looks exactly like the cheekiness you describe in a cute package.
So we don't have ghost stories. Probably because halloween isn't part of our culture. We do have urban legends about drop bears and bunyips that should be avoided at all costs, but no ghost stories. I think I'd probably spend a few nights having nightmares over them if we did!
No, the one that freaks me [ever since I heard it aged 9] is about the escaped psychopath - and the couple in the parked car in in the woods and he gets out for a pee and doesn't come back. Then she hears this rhythmic banging on the roof just as a policeman [with torch] appears in front of the car and says "Stay there. We will get you out in a minute"
I cannot tell you the rest of it, if you don't already know the story- you might have nightmares!!!
I never told MY children - but they came home from school having heard it [in an updated version which included mobile phones etc]
I think there is some sort of 'race memory' that passes these things down through the generations.
In this house 'the thing that goes bump in the night' is usually husband downstairs dropping large Bible when he is doing sermon prep in the wee small hours!!!!
blessings x
Funny! I did this with eighth graders and they had a lot of good stories, too! They love the scary story books that Scholastic sells. They disappear from my shelves!
Happy birthday (late) to Will. I hope he had fun!
The readers are so excited to Skype, Frances! I am waiting for Bill to get home to help me get a number and all that. Next week? What day is not full of doings for you? I won't be at school on Friday. We're going to Philadelphia. Woo hoo!
I miss being room mom. Now that my kids are in middle and high school, my offerings of help are rebuffed. Trying to get on one of those campuses during school hours is like trying to break into a prison.
As far as I know, neither of my kids know any ghost stories. It could be because they are scaredy cats. They could be scaredy cats, because I was a scaredy cat as a child, too.
I miss being room mom. Now that my kids are in middle and high school, my offerings of help are rebuffed. Trying to get on one of those campuses during school hours is like trying to break into a prison.
As far as I know, neither of my kids know any ghost stories. It could be because they are scaredy cats. They could be scaredy cats, because I was a scaredy cat as a child, too.
What a good looking fellow that Will is. Happy Birthday!
Yes, I recall the ghost stories growing up, especially the one about the Screaming Woman who was killed during a stage coach accident in the Black Hills. The kids always listened to Dad-friend tell the story of Tell Tale Heart. Thump, thump thump.
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