I'm pretty sure this is still in my mom's top five favorite things I've ever written, and that includes award-winning essays, "published" poetry, and oratories that qualified me for nationals.
This is a limerick that I wrote in the seventh grade.
There once was a monkey named Fred
who had a very big head.
He slipped on a peel
and let out a squeal,
and now poor Fred is dead.
(Unknown date somewhere in the neighborhood of 1999.)
I think the accompanying illustration was really what did it for her. I could call her right now and read this to her and she would start laughing so hard she'd start wheezing. I bet she still has it stashed away in a rubbermaid container somewhere, because our family has just a touch of the hoarding. Although, I have to admit that I still have the awesome comics I drew that same year when I was bored in Language Arts. The Adventures of SuperBlob lives on in my file cabinet, and occasionally in the margins of my notes.
Anyway, I hope I can mine such brilliant gems from my writing students next year (who will obviously never have time to doodle awesome comic book characters because they will be completely engrossed in every earth-shatteringly amazing word I say). It's a high bar to clear, but I think we'll make it into a few more rubbermaid containers.
Everyone should have a monkey named Fred.
ReplyDeleteIt is funny what we choose, or don't choose, to remember from childhood. My mother still has on the wall a "drawing" of a spider that used my five year old thumbprint as the body.
Cute.
I sent Mom the link to this post. Wheezing did, in fact, occur. Mission accomplished.
ReplyDeleteI remember Fred!!
ReplyDeleteEven more so, I REMEMBER SUPERBLOB!! As I have recently discovered a love for comicbooks, you really need to make Superblob a comicbook hero, for reals.