A Preview – You’re all invited
I was substitute teaching in a 3rd-grade classroom. There came a time when I got to tell the class a story. I referred to the tale of the Three Billy Goats Gruff in my story. I asked the students whether they had heard of the tale before. None of them had. We discussed what stories their parents read to them or told them when they were younger. Sadly, many of the traditional stories I mentioned they had never heard. Some students said that their parents don’t read to them because their parents think their kids were old enough to read by themselves.
Even though my own parents didn’t read much to me as a child, I was still immersed in folk and fairy tales. I’m sure my life now would be different if I didn’t have those stories back then. We seem to be losing the culture and lessons learned from telling and reading traditional stories as modern society moves away from them and changes or bans them because they are not PC. Those stories are fading from our existence. I feel that is a tragedy.
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Red Riding Hood was on her way to the three bears’ house. She had just received an invitation to a meeting in a local village to discuss what could be done about the changes in people’s attitudes towards folktales. She thought that Goldilocks would be interested in going too and knew just where Goldilocks was. When she got to the bears’ house, she found the door open, one porridge bowl empty, a broken chair, and upstairs – three empty beds.
The meeting was important to Red, so she took off her riding hood, left a note in its pocket, saying, “Gone to Granny’s. You know the way,” and draped her riding hood over the window sill where Goldilocks could find it. She then went to her grandmother’s house, told granny she was attending a meeting, and left a note for the woodsman explaining she was concerned about a wolf and her granny’s health.
Rumplestiltskin was frustrated and angry about how his name was besmirched by that girl who had promised him her first child. He had received an invitation to a meeting of all the bad/evil characters of stories to discuss what could be done to change their perceived reputations. He definitely was going to that meeting.
Many characters from folktales, fairy tales, and stories written were receiving these invitations. Those meetings did take place. However, they were all traps to capture those characters through magic. Their memories would be wiped, so they could not remember who they were or the story they were part of. And then they were whisked away by more sorcery.
A mystic had tasked me to find all these characters and stories and return them to their proper place. And somehow, my friend Ronald got involved too.
Beginning on April 1st, follow the 26-part story of what happened in my quest as I tell all in the 2023 A to Z Blog Challenge. I will post daily links on my Facebook page and LinkedIn. Or you can just visit my blog – https://www.hdhstory.net/storyblog each day in April (except on Sundays). The links for each part will go live 5 minutes after midnight EDT on the day that section is supposed to be posted. Clicking on them earlier will only say Not Found, so you don’t get any previews. You can comment anytime directly on the blog if you wish to.
I hope you all will read my “Save me a Story” tale and enjoy it. Here is the link for A – “Ask a Question,” which will begin on Saturday, April 1. https://www.hdhstory.net/Storyblog/?p=3434
