Andrew and the Steam Shovel

Aiden’s class was getting assembled for stories in his classroom when we arrived.

In the new book I gave Sky there is a picture of men sawing blocks of ice in the old days, just like the first story I was telling them about my Uncle Johnny and Uncle Walter cutting ice as teenagers. As I told the story I had Aiden walk though all the rows of children showing the picture. Of course, Sir Speedy, wasn’t going slow enough for anyone to see so I needed to tell him to slow down. Then he paused perfectly for each child as if he was counting seconds for each child.

In my story the horse and sleigh fall into the hole in the ice and Johnny, in his new red plaid jacket, jumps in to push the horse out. The horse does get out but Johnny’s mother, Eva (Grandma Blazy’s) is not happy that Johnny didn’t put on his work clothes. She pulled him by is ear all the way home because he had his good coat on.

Aiden was sitting in a chair facing his class, still hold the picture on his lap. So when I came to the part of the story with the ear, I went over to him and pretended to pull his ear out of the chair and across the room.

He was pursing his lips together so as not to smile (such an Adam thing, I had to laugh). All the children started to laugh and I was dragging him by his ear. He couldn’t contain himself; he had done that straight-line smile from ear to ear and his cheeks turned pink.

Then Aiden sat joining the rest of his class for the next two stories. The third story was How Benjamin Saved the Zoo.

In the story Benjamin is about 3 and Adam just turned 5. I accompanied Adam’s 1st grade class to the North Carolina Zoo. Benjamin came, too. Benjamin got lost and we found him in a fountain collecting all the pennies and putting them in his pocket. He said he had found a fortune and he was going to buy me a new house, dad a new car, himself a horse and Adam a new bike. “You ROCK,” Adam said.


Aiden laughed out loud. A few kids nearby were saying things like, “That was you Daddy?” Aiden nodded his head, yes. He loved that part of the story.

Then Adam led everyone in several chants saying, “Benjamin saved he zoo!” Of course, the more I saw the children loving to chant along, the more crazy chants we did, or Adam, supposedly did. Aiden was grinning to beat the band.

The class made up a never heard before story of “Andrew and the Steam Shovel” that I have written up under a separate cover.

We had so much fun, took the whole hour and left them begging for more. Maybe, I’ll get invited back again.


-- Nana Beth

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Andrew and the Steam Shovel
By Beth Ann Rossi
As Told To by the Kindergarten Classes of Nysmith
February 23,2012

Once upon a time in the town of West Ox there was an enormous dog. He was as pink as pink as the prettiest hair ribbon. He was a happy dog. When he smiled he smiled so big his cheeks exploded from his skull. His name was Andrew.

Andrew loved to play and hike and jump. Everybody loved Andrew.

One day a steam shovel drove into the lot next door. It started to dig the earth. It sh-h-h-h-h-h-oook the ground and dug up Andrew’s bone. I wasn't just any bone; it was Andrew’s all time favorite bone.

Andrew ran out of his house, under the fence to rescue his bone.

The seam shovel operator blasted his horn. “B-B-B-BEEEEEEP!”

Andrew quickly grabbed his bone and ran back to his house. He was too big to hide under the table and too big to hide under the couch. He didn’t know where to hide.

Suddenly, a comforter fell off the couch and fell on top of him. He was even more scared so he began to run.

He ran out of the house and under the fence. He couldn’t see where he was going because the comforter was blocking his view.

The steam shovel operator saw what he thought was a ghost dog.

“Woof, woof, woof,” barked Andrew.

The man got so scared he jumped off the machine and ran away.

Andrew shook the comforter off. It was nice and quiet and peaceful in the lot. He spread out the comforter and lay down upon it for a nap.

As he chewed on his favorite bone he thought, “I sure do like stories with a happy ending.”

He smiled so big his cheeks exploded off his skull, again.