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Show inn i Where have all the writing things gone? 1 grassroots , ; J t Copyright 1 I ecky j t;"yi0 f Grass tj Johnson i 1 - x Have you ever wondered why cave men chiseled their ancient writings into stone walls? Do you know why the American Indian sent messages in smoke? And why did the Egyptians painted on papyri? Most likely it's because their kids had run off with all the pens, pencils and paper! I can buy a new package of paper and several pens, but within a week no one at my house has the foggiest idea where they are. I am tired of scratching phone messages on the side of the refrigerator. I am sick of writing notes in the dust on the counter. I've been humiliated by having to write my grocery list on a scrap of newspaper with a crayon. Then one day in the fresh produce section, I spied a woman with a grocery list that ran all the way up her arm to her shoulder. It was then that I knew I was not alone. What in the world do kids do with all the paper and all those pens? I have found that in most cases, they haven't been writing letters to Grandma and Grandpa. They weren't doing homework assignments. assign-ments. They weren't practicing penmanship. Instead I found 2,000 paper airplanes, air-planes, 69 paper chains, 43 paper dolls, and typing paper in the bottom of the parakeet cage. I found that pens were being used to hold the door on the gerbil cage shut. It's entertaining to see how many times the pen can be tossed up and down in the air before Daddy leans over and whispers that he is going to break it in two. Times haven't changed that much. I recall the day when my Mom screwed a small chain into the wall next to the telephone. On the end of the chain was her pen. She called it her "good pen." She let us kids know right off the bat that if any one of us dared to remove that pen, we were taking our lives in our own hands. For years after that, everyone automatically knew that if they ever needed a pen, they could find one by the phone. It wasn't going anywhere. There was a feeling of security in knowing that at least one thing in life was certain besides pimples and taxes. I decided that what my family needed was a pen on a chain. In all fairness to the family, I bought an especially long chain. That way the pen could also be used in other rooms of the house. Va?te"ed my "eod Pen" to the end of the chain and screwed the other end mto the wall. My feeling of euphoria lasted until the PTA called with a hst 0f names for me tQ end Jf ab!fd f0r a Piece of paper and grabbed my chain. I followed it through the kitchen into the bathroom, around the l,w W IOC, hamper, into a bedroom, i). 2, dresser, over a chair and : closet. I screamed whenlfar my "good pen" was missing you could say that I hadrea; end of my chain. It was time to get tough. ' my family together for a t lecture on the serious natur; crime which had been com: let them know in no uncertr that my "good pen" was w removed from the end of tt NEVER! Every head hung low. The; meant business. Thenexttimelneededto; a telephone message, prepared. I reached for sor and my "good pen." I $ that not only was the chain' but there was a nice sized !v wall. I did eventually locate fc . One of the kids had used it t the broken chain on the dci You'll be thrilled to kno : "good pen" was still atta end. , Someday the kids will older and perhaps not I Someday I'll have a terminal right next to uV will make all the pens aii the world obsolete. I only hope that when; time to type up my groceO the kids haven't pulled , microchips for a gamw r by BECKI GRASS JOHNSON There were pens in the window runs to keep out burglars. Pens were the masts for a toy sailboat or flagpoles on sand castles. Pencils were used to replace missing tinker toy parts. You have to hand it to kids, they are creative. I used to think that when one of the kids begged to take a pen and a small pad of paper to church, they were going to sit quietly and write Right? Wrong! The child sits through the meeting and shreds the paper into confetti, or scribbles little notes back and forth to friends. The pen isn't necessarily to write with either. It can be used to poke an older brother in the back of the neck until the incident nearly invokes a boxing match in the pew. |
