06/05/2020
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Hi All, here is our 5th bedtime (or anytime) story. Enjoy, and read our earlier stories if you haven't yet done so. All are available on this page.
The Old Woman who Lived in the Shoe (5)
There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.
Yes, she did live there but it was more like a boot than a shoe. You see she needed more bedrooms for her very large family and the higher walls on the boot, like an upstairs, made that possible. But for this story we will call it a shoe as everyone has heard about the old woman who lived in a shoe and not so many have heard about the old woman who lived in a boot.
The other thing is that she was not really that old and she much preferred to be called middle aged, or even young middle aged, or just young! So we will call her ‘the woman’ and not ‘the old woman’. We don’t want to upset her.
The woman and her family didn’t have a lot of money. She found it hard to buy enough food and clothes for everyone but they managed. Money was so scarce she even had to cancel her subscription to Diamond Jewellery Digest.
Did I mention that she had a large family?
I did, but I didn’t tell you how large it was. She had thirty-six children. The oldest was eleven-and-a-half and the youngest will be just two months old in five weeks time.
Besides buying food and clothes for everyone, she also had to buy a lot of deodorant to spray about the place as her home was a very old shoe. As most people know, old shoes don’t always smell the best.
The woman’s husband had to work long hours to get enough money to buy all the things they needed so he was hardly ever able to spend a lot of time at home. All his son’s were on the local hurling team and all his daughters were on the local camogie team. In fact they were the entire hurling and camogie teams.
He was working so much he hardly ever got to see his children training or playing matches. This made him sad.
The woman’s husband was a very good man and the woman loved him dearly as did all the children. The woman had only one complaint about him. She thought he should have kept both his old shoes instead of throwing one away. She felt that life would be much easier if they had an extra shoe to live in with such a large family. You see, Dad’s feet are small, he wears only a size six shoe. But that’s another story for another day and they are making do with what they have for now.
One day, when all the children had come home from school and hurling and camogie training, the woman who was about to make snacks for them, opened the kitchen press and realised she was out of bread. She tried to call her husband who was at work, to ask him if he could bring nine loaves of bread home during his break.
But she was out of credit.
“Mum, is my sandwich ready yet please, I’m really hungry after training and I need to eat before I do my homework”, sixteen of her children all said together.
The other sixteen children quickly joined the conversation, they all said, “Me too”!
She thought things couldn’t get worse. But they did. Sparky the dog trotted in from the garden and looked up at her, wagging his tail. The woman knew what that meant, Sparky was hungry too.
You guessed it, she was out of dog food too.
The woman was very sad and the sound of all the children’s rumbling bellies made her feel worse and she started to cry.
The children gathered round and told her it was not her fault. They assured her that as soon as their dad came home he would go to the shop immediately and bring back food for their snacks and also their evening meal.
Dad was working at a local farm where he was the scarecrow fashion manager. He would make sure the scarecrows were all dressed properly and not wearing the same clothes every day so that the crows wouldn’t realise they were not real people.
Dad just finished fitting buttons to a new jacket he had made for the newest and tallest scarecrow when he heard his manager’s voice, “Come on everyone, time for your afternoon snack”.
Dad put down his tools and headed to the cafeteria where there was a lovely bowl of chicken bean soup as well as a banana and turnip sandwich waiting for him.”Yummy”, he said as he picked up the sandwich. He was just about to take a big bite when the sight of the bread made him think. He remembered looking in the kitchen press before he left for work this morning and noticed there was no bread.
Now he felt really bad. He had meant to run to the shop for bread before going to work but forgot as he was distracted by Mrs. O’Reilly who was hanging out her washing on her clothesline. Mrs. O’Reilly lives in the old tea pot next door to the shoe and she does an awful amount of all sorts of laundering.
He asked his boss if he could take an extra twenty minute break to buy bread and bring it home to his family. His boss was a nice guy but told him he couldn’t leave right now as there were a bunch of crows sitting in the trees waiting to swoop down and eat all the marmalade that was growing in the fields. More scarecrows needed to be dressed and put out in the fields as quickly as possible.
Dad returned to his work after only eating a tiny bit of his sandwich and just two spoonfuls of soup. He hadn’t any appetite for any more of his lunch knowing that his family had no bread. He picked up a button to sew onto the scarecrow's jacket and thought to himself, “I wish the scarecrows could do all this work themselves so that I could bring bread home to my family”.
Just then a puff of purple smoke filled the air. He could hardly see in front of him, the smoke was so thick. But the smoke cleared in just a few seconds and Dad found himself standing in front of a very magical looking wizard. He was gobsmacked. He tried to talk but the words just wouldn’t leave his mouth. It was like he was frozen to the spot and his mouth was frozen shut.
The wizard saw this and to make Dad feel better he spoke to him. “Hi, don’t be frightened at all. I’m Winston the Wizard. I’m in a lot of the Kids Party Club puppet shows and all of your children have seen me at different birthday and Christmas parties and First Communions over the years. You know, your children are so good and you and their mum work so hard to give them what they need, I thought I’d drop in to see if I can help. You see, I heard you make a wish that the scarecrow could do all your work so I decided to see if I can make that happen”.
Dad slowly got his voice back. “Eh, thanks Winston, do you really think you can help”.
Winston thought that was a silly question, “Do you know who I am? Have you seen me in the Kids Party Club’s puppet shows? Ah, never mind, grown-ups sometimes don’t pay attention to detail like the children do. Of course I can help. I just need the boys and girls reading this story to help out. Now, you want enough food for your family and you want to get some help with your work. That’s it, right. Boys and girls, here’s what I need you to do. When I count to three you need to say the following magic words together, then I’ll wave my magic wand and with any luck it’ll work and everything will be sorted. There’ll be another puff of purple smoke but that’s just for effect, my trademark. Boys and girls at home, don’t worry, the smoke cloud won’t affect you at all at all”.
Dad looked on as Winston gave the instructions to all the readers at home. “The magic spell is this, Old woman who lives in a shoe…”, he stopped as Dad interrupted.
“Winston, she doesn’t like being called old at all. And I can tell you she’s in pretty good shape alright, hee, hee, so can we please have a nicer magic spell”?
“Oh”, Winston said, “No problem. Let’s try this one”:
“Beautiful woman living in a shoe,
May yummy goodies be sent to you.
Turn your home from the smallest,
To the most beautiful and grandest.
Sewing buttons, the scarecrows can do”.
“Now, everyone repeat the magic words now, on the count of three, one…, two…, three! All together now”.
“Beautiful woman living in a shoe,
May yummy goodies be sent to you.
Turn your home from the smallest,
To the most beautiful and grandest.
Sewing buttons, the scarecrows can do”.
There was a puff of purple smoke like no puff of purple smoke ever seen before but it cleared as quickly as it appeared.
“That’s sorted. You go home now and everything will be grand. I must be off now. I’m on my way to Jack and Jill to help them with another problem. Something about water at the top of the hill, I wonder what could have happened. If you have any more problems give me a shout, don’t ever be stuck. Bye now, bye everybody, I’ll see you all at a Kids Party Club puppet show, hopefully very soon. Good luck”!
There was another puff of purple smoke and Winston the Wizard was gone.
Dad looked around and couldn’t believe his eyes. The scarecrows were sewing their own buttons and heading out to the field. The crows wouldn’t dare go near the fields now.
He headed home and again he couldn’t believe his eyes as he approached his home. The shoe, or boot, was sparkling new and larger than ever, a size twelve at least he thought. There were extra windows upstairs, enough bedrooms for all thirty-six children.
He saw Mrs. Reilly staring at his new home. She was so shocked that she dropped all her freshly washed laundry on the ground.
“Don’t worry Mrs. Reilly, we have a giant new washing machine, we’ll help you wash it”, he told her.
When he went inside he got a big hug from his wife and a hug from every one of his thirty-six children. They were all eating their after school snacks and the shelves and cupboards were loaded with food.
Sparky was eating a pile of freshly cooked sausages that smelled so lovely Dad couldn’t resist licking his lips.
Everybody was happy and they had a great evening together and lived happily ever after. They were never hungry again and Mum and Dad got to watch all their hurling and camogie matches.
Dad wasn’t sure if the new home would be big enough in years to come when loads and loads of grandchildren came to visit but he thought it was best not to worry about that just yet.
* This is our fifth bedtime (or anytime) story. Catch up on our earlier stories if you haven’t read them, just scroll down to see them. Kids Party Club Catch Up is always available.
* Check back with us regularly. We will keep this page updated with games, puzzles, stories and anything else we can think of that’s fun while everyone needs to stay at home to keep our friends and family safe!
* Best wishes from all of us at Kids Party Club to all of you staying at home. We will see you again at your birthday parties, Communions, Christmas, community and corporate events, and other fun events soon. Hopefully real soon!
* Thanks to all doctors, nurses, hospital workers and emergency services for keeping us safe and to all essential workers making sure shops and services are open so we can buy food, have electricity and many other things that make our lives comfortable.
* Be safe, stay home, wash your hands, keep smiling.
