MOMMY! DADDY! There's A Monster Under the Bed!

The Roommate

Monsters!

Last month I wrote "Do You Believe In Magic?", a story about my children and some magic sand I bought. The response was better than I expected and I was encouraged to write more stories like that one. This is another story about the kids.

HELP!

My children are eighteen months apart in age and, until my daughter was about five or six, they shared a room. This story takes place during the time they shared the room with an uninvited roommate. It all started one night after my wife and I put the kids to bed. We had settled in to watch some television and enjoy some "quiet time" when we heard someone cry out. We went down the hall to their room to find both of them awake and scared. Apparently there was a monster, maybe even more than one, under their beds.

Tucked Away

My wife and I each looked under a bed only to discover that the monster had gone away. We looked all over - the closet, behind the dresser, behind the curtains, you name it and we looked. When everyone was satisfied that the monster was gone I gave a stern warning to any monsters thinking about visiting the kids. We said goodnight and left them, once again, for the Sandman.

The next night, shortly after saying goodnight we were informed that the monster had returned! It would seem that the monster did not take my warning seriously and decided to test me. Once again, we searched the entire room warning the monster the entire time. The cowardly monster had fled before we could catch him. The warning was repeated, everyone got tucked into bed and the Sandman cometh.

Do I have to tell you what happened the next night? The night after that and the night after that? This damned monster was really starting to become a nuisance! I had visions of this going on for a long time and had to find a way to put an end to it, but how? Have you ever found yourself in a predicament when suddenly the answer comes to you out of nowhere? Yea, it does not happen to me very often either but it happened that night.

The Boots

The Secret Weapon

I winked at my wife, told the kids I would be right back and went to my bedroom. I grabbed a pair of old work boots that I had, returned to the kids’ room and put the boots in the middle of their bedroom floor. I raised my voice and announced to the monster that I was tired of him bothering my children and I was going to stay in their room until he showed his ugly face. I whispered to the kids that the monster can see the shoes but doesn’t know they are empty so he will stay away.

We tucked them in, said goodnight and walked away praying the boots would somehow keep the monster at bay. They slept well that night but the real test was going to come tomorrow.

Sleeping

The next night we put them to bed but before turning out the lights, I announced that I was going to be waiting for the monster and put the boots in the middle of the floor. We went to the living room expecting to hear a scream but it never came. We gave it some time and after about an hour we checked on them – sound asleep. It worked!

I’m not sure how many nights the boots were in their room but I do know we didn’t have to worry about monsters under the beds anymore. The monsters IN the beds – well, that’s another story for another time, but they have turned into some pretty amazing adults so…. 😛

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"The Roommate" - Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

"Tucked Away" - Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay

"The Boots" - Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

"Sleeping" - Image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay

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Do you believe in magic?

So, do you believe in magic? I don't mean the magic in a young girl's heart, I mean real magic. Like stuff mysteriously appearing out of thin air? If you answered, no, then let me take this opportunity to change your mind.

The Magic Sand

This particular feat of magic took place in the late 20^th century in my own backyard. It was the beginning of summer and the kids wanted a sandbox to play in. I was able to find a nice, turtle-shaped sandbox but none of the stores had sand. I spent days trying to find a store with sand, traveling 100's of miles, but there wasn't a grain to be had. I was about to give up when I saw store with a sign in the window reading, "Magic Sand Sold Here." I didn't believe in "magic sand" but I was desperate so I went in.

When I opened the door I immediately saw an old woman sitting behind the counter - she looked to be 100 years old and she turned her head in my direction as I walked in. I told her my tale and that I was desperate for about 200 pounds of sand for my children's sandbox. She held a crooked finger in the air and, with her other hand reached under the counter. When her hand reappeared she was holding a small plastic bag with about a half-cup of sand. I took the bag and laughed! How was I going to fill a sandbox with a half-cup of sand? She told me it was "magic sand", I was to put it in the sandbox, say the magic words, cover the sandbox and the next morning it will be full.

Well... I knew someone was full of something but I was desperate. I paid $10 for the bag of sand and went home to my wife and children. My wife gave me a "look" when I told everyone about the sand and asked if I had any "magic beans", too. It was getting late so we dumped the sand into the sandbox, said the magic words and put the cover on. I'm not sure who was more curious the next morning, me or the kids. We had our breakfast and went outside to check the sandbox. I had already come up with a story about why the sandbox was still empty but, lo and behold!, when we removed the cover the sandbox was full! I know what you are thinking but it's true! You can ask my wife and kids - some time between when the kids went to bed and we finished eating breakfast the sandbox filled up with sand. It truly was magic.

Do you believe now?

Well? Do you?

Let me ask you another question. Have you ever noticed that in the middle of the word "believe" is the word "lie"? I didn't either until earlier this week. Believe me when I tell you that the "magic sand" was a hoax. Yes, that's right! As far as I know, there is no magic sand. I decided to have some fun with the kids. We had already gotten the sandbox and I told them I was going out for sand. I went to Home Depot and bought the 200 pounds I needed and then went to the beach before heading for home. I brought a sandwich bag with me, scooped up some sand and put the bag on the front seat of the car. When I got home I made up the story of the magic sand; we put the sand in the box, said some magic words and covered the box. When they went to bed that night I went outside and filled the sandbox.

The looks on the children's faces when I took off the lid of the sandbox was priceless, unfortunately there are no photos. They truly believed that the sand was magic and couldn't wait to start playing. They spent a lot of time in that sandbox that summer and it always brings a smile to my face when I think about it. It was such a simple thing but the memories will last a lifetime.

Now that I think about it, when I said that the "magic sand" was a hoax I may have been lying just a bit. While the sand didn't magically multiply overnight it did make two young children believe in magic and it gave a family one more wonderful memory. If that isn't magical, I don't know what is.

In Closing

The moral of the story is simple - you don't have to spend a lot of money or go to exotic lands for vacation, a little bit of imagination and spending time together is really what life is all about. My daughter recently posted a meme on her Facebook page that read: "A child is going to remember who was there, not what you spent on them. Kids outgrow a toy & outfits, but they never outgrow time and love." I believe that to be true but would change it a bit. They may remember the expensive gifts or big vacations but they won't cherish them as much as they will time spent together. While the kids outgrew the sandbox (we still have it but it isn't being used) they never outgrew the memory. Children have a way of making us understand what is important in life, if we will only listen.

I hope you enjoyed this trip down Memory Lane and would love to hear from you. Have you done anything similar for your children or your parents do something like this for you? Do you have a favorite family memory that you would like to share? Leave comments below - I love hearing from my readers.

Until next time - enjoy your summer and make sure you are making memories, not just plans!

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Sandbox image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay

"Yellow shovel" image is copyright Joseph S. Valencia All Rights Reserved and may not be used in any way without express written permission of the photographer. If you wish to use the image you may contact the photographer at valencia32photo@gmail.com

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I Think I Have Seen Everything Now

I Love to Hike

If you have been following along on this blog and my photography blog, Exploring Photography with Joe Valencia, you will know that I enjoy hiking. I try to get out at lunchtime every day and this year I have set a goal for 365 miles. I have been tracking my hikes since October 2011 and the most miles I have had in a year is 144 in 2014. Last year I hiked at least once every month for a total of 115 miles - I don't get a lot of miles in during the summer because it just gets too hot and humid. I set my goal at an average of 1 mile/day; the plan is to do a lot more than that but it seemed like a reasonable goal.

As-of today I have nearly 70 miles and averaging more than 1.2 miles/day. This is mainly because I am averaging more than 1.8 miles per hike, many hikes are between 2 and 2 1/2 miles during my lunch hour. Usually the hikes are uneventful, I almost always have a camera and sometimes I get some "keepers" but the hikes are usually about the hike and getting outdoors. I say the hikes are usually uneventful because there have been a few times when things got a bit interesting. The worse that ever happened was a few years ago when I passed out after a hike and spent the night in the hospital - dehydration/heat exhaustion - but that is for another time. This year has been rather strange with this week taking the cake.

Strange Encounters

Earlier this year I stopped at Durand Park, a local park I occasionally go to, at lunch to take a hike. It is a small park with a cinder walkway leading to a gazebo and then a large field planted with wildflowers to attract butterflies. As I approached the gazebo I noticed something scratched into the walkway so I walked up on the grass. In capital letters I found "RUN HELP US HE'S HERE" and accompanying the words was a pictogram that included a pentagram. Inside the gazebo were other pictures and writing - most of which I couldn't make out except for "HAIL SATAN". Needless to say, I took some pictures and then reported it to the local police. I stayed away from the park for a couple weeks; I never saw anything written about it and never heard from the police so I don't know if it was something real or just some kids being jerks. What really made it odd was that I was there at 7:00 AM for a quick walk before work and when I went back at noon all of this was there. This was also a school day....

The very next afternoon I headed out for a walk at Monmouth Battlefield about 5 miles west of Durand Park. I was hiking about the Farms Trail which lies between the field and the woods. I saw that a large branch had blown down and was blocking the trail and I noticed something white in the middle of it. As I got closer, I noticed it was a skull that someone had wedged in between branches - attached to the skull was about 18 inches of the spine! I looked at the edge of the trail and found the remainder of the deer. I don't know how long it had been there but long enough so that it was almost completely clean. I have found skeletal remains a couple other times but never had I come across anything like this. Who would do such a thing and why? I conjunction with the previous day's findings I turned around and headed back to the office - I didn't want to stick around.... I walked by that spot yesterday and the skull was gone, the branches removed but the rest of the skeleton is still there.

Then There is Today

I decided to go back to Monmouth Battlefield today and was having a pretty good outing until I was on my way back to the office. I had hiked up to the house and was headed back towards the woods which will bring me back to the road and my office. I looked up and saw a rather large person walking along the trail headed towards me. I will sometimes come across people walking their dogs but this guy was alone and coming from the woods - something felt hinky. I decided to walk about 30 or 40 yards to my right to get away from him before heading to the woods; the whole time keeping an eye out for him to re-appear. There was a time when a building blocked my view but if he was still walking he would have reappeared - he never did. This had me concerned because now it seemed like it wasn't going to be a pleasant encounter. I looked towards the woods and saw someone - a different person! - dressed in black pants and black hoodie with the hood up. He was standing next to a tree, not moving. As soon as he saw me, he slowly took a step to his left and disappeared behind the tree. Alarms went off and I got the hell out of there. I didn't run but walked a bit faster than I would normally. I noticed a few State Park Police vehicles in the parking lot and headed for them, if someone was there I was going to let them know what I saw, if not I was going to walk to Rt 9 and the long way back to the office.

As luck would have it, as I got to the parking lot there was a State Park Police Officer with a bloodhound! The alarms got louder!! I waved at him and got his attention, walked over to him and explained what had just happened. He laughed and told me that the two (2) guys in the woods were fellow officers and they were conducting training for the dog. To say that I was relieved would be a gross understatement, so would saying that I felt a bit foolish, too! I thanked the officer and headed towards the woods where I encountered the first officer I had seen. I stopped to talk to him - I guess the other guy had radioed because he was laughing as I approached. I talked to him for a minute or so - waved to the "hoodie guy" and headed back to the office. I'm sure they are going to have a good laugh about it for quite some time to come.

I guess if you are going to come across some "shady" characters while out hiking alone, it's good to find out they are "the good guys" and not looking to make you their next statistic. 😂

I hope you enjoyed this post and would love to hear about any strange encounters you may have had while hiking or just out on the town. Has anything bizarre ever happened to you? Let me know in the comments below. Thanks for stopping by....

Stephen King's Stand By Me - Every Boy's Story

Okay. All of the men, who love this movie, raise your hand. Quite a few, that’s what I thought. Now, all of the women who love this movie raise your hand. There aren’t a lot of you, are there? No, this movie seems to be the exact opposite of a “chick flick” and appeals mainly to men. Personally, I love the movie and the novella that it is based on.

The Body is a novella written by Stephen King and is part of the collection in DIFFERENT SEASONS. The book contains four novellas, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption (The Shawshank Redemption), Apt Pupil (Apt Pupil), The Body (Stand by Me) and The Breathing Method; three of which were made into movies, the movie titles in are in parentheses. I enjoyed each story and each adaptation but The Body and Stand by Me struck on a personal basis. The title of this post calls it “every boy’s story” and I think that is reasonably accurate; not every boy has set out to find a dead body but it is the adventurer in us.

The story is a first person account of four (4) 12 year-old friends, Gordie, Chris, Teddy and Vern. Vern overhears his older brother telling a few friends – the town thugs - about a dead boy, Ray Brower, he found and heads to the treehouse to relay the news. The boys decide to tell their parents they are going camping in a big field owned by Vern’s parents and go out in search of the body. They want to find him and be the heroes. They grab their gear and head out in search for poor Ray Brower. They walk along the train tracks and cut across a big field. There is a time when they come across a large pool of water in the woods and have to wade through it – if you have seen the movie or read the book you will know why this is the most difficult scene in the whole story…. They finally find Ray lying lifeless in the bushes when the thugs show up. They want to get credit for finding Ray but Gordie and the gang won’t let them. Chris had brought his fathers’ gun, just in case, and Gordie threatened the thugs, scaring them off. The boys finally decide to phone in an anonymous tip. The story ends with a recap of their lives after that trip.

I touched upon the highlights purposely not going into detail because I cannot do justice and I want to encourage everyone to experience it for themselves. This post wasn’t meant to be an essay about the story but rather what it means to me and guys the world over. It’s about being with your best friends, and exploring the world around you. It’s about adventure and going into the unknown driven only by your sense of curiosity. What a great time in your life – you are old enough to go out and explore and young enough not to have a lot of responsibility weighing you down. Over the years, I have written about some of my adventures in my early teen years; maybe that is one of the appeals of the story. I can envision this story being played out by Joe, Len, John and Jim although our lives were much different than Gordie, Chris, Teddy and Vern. We even had an overnight camping trip that was quite an adventure itself when we were about 16 and a bit of adventure involving train tracks but that is for another story. We had plenty of others and I look back fondly over those times. We have each gone our separate ways and have families of our own. I can’t remember the last time the four of us have been in the same room but suspect it has been more than 20 years and that is a shame.

I originally wrote this in 2016 for a blogging community I was involved in. I was initially inspired to write this after walking into the living room when my son was watching the movie on television. I had been writing most of the day. I took a break and was walking through the living room where my son was watching a movie. I arrived in time to see Gordie put his hands on the railroad tracks and yell “Train!” I could feel a smile growing on my face and a wave of nostalgia come over me. I woke up the next morning with the title and the rest just started writing itself. I know I have watched the movie with my wife (and possibly my daughter) but don’t really remember; she usually just smiles when she sees it is on and continues on. I can’t count how many times I have watched it with my son and have watched it countless times when I was alone. Even though the subject matter isn’t exactly “feel good” nor is the movie itself but it can always lift me up when I am having a bad day and isn’t that what a good story is supposed to do?

Well, last week I was flipping through the channels looking for something to watch and, guess what I found! I came in just as Vern was digging around under the porch looking for his pennies. I only meant to watch for a short time until my wife was done with whatever she was doing so that we could watch a movie we had recorded. My son walked in, saw what I was watching and sat down on the couch. My wife looked in, saw what we were watching and walked away knowing that her viewing pleasure was being put on hold. There is something about the movie - when I start watching it I can't just walk away. It's like having a bag of potato chips and trying to "eat just one." Yeah. Right!

This isn’t a typical Stephen King story and many people wouldn’t know it was if you didn’t tell them. It is just a great story about a group of kids trying to something good and the obstacles they have to overcome along the way. In other words, it is about life. I encourage you to read the novella and then, if you are so inclined, watch the movie. This is one of those rare cases where I enjoy both rather equally but the novella has much more detail and treats you to the references to other works that we have come to expect from Stephen.

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All photos are copyright Joseph S. Valencia All Rights Reserved They may not be used in any way without express written permission of the photographer. If you wish to use any of the photos you may contact the photographer at valencia32photo@gmail.com

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Illustrations provided by Pixabay