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Grandpa Bill's Big Lake Mistake

As told by Katie L.

Story Narrative:

Submitted by Katie to the Women Mind the Water digital stories project, in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street storytelling website and traveling exhibition "Water/Ways."

K (Katie): Are you ready for Mommy’s story?

Child (c): Yes.

K: Okay. Mommy grew up in a house across the road and up on top of a hill from a big lake. And in the winter, Mommy’s daddy, your Grandpa Bill, used to like to go to work in a warm car. So, what he would do was turn the car on and back it out of the garage, just a little and then go upstairs and have a cup of coffee while his car warmed up.

C: This is the stairs.

K: Yup. This is his house (points to a structure made of Legos). And then one day, Grandpa Bill forgot to turn on the emergency brake in his car. And his car rolled down the hill and across the road and into the lake (child pushes a red car out of the house). SPLASH. Just like that. But Grandpa Bill didn’t realize what had happened. He was still upstairs having his cup of coffee. Some old nice lady came driving by and thought: “Hmmm, that’s interesting.” And drove down the road and told the police car, the policeman.

C: What’s wrong?

K: She told him: “There’s a car in the lake at the other end of the town.”

C: OH!

K: He came down. (To the child: “Come on please.” Child drives a Lego policeman on a motorcycle into the scene).

C: What? Whoa! K: He thought: “That’s interesting.”

C: Yes, that’s interesting.

K: He thought: 'That car’s on. That exhaust pipe is in the water.' He’s like: 'That’s really bad.'

C: That’s really bad for the water.

K: That’s bad for the water. Do you know what he did?

C: Yeah. K: What did he do?

C: Give a ticket.

K: He gave Grandpa Bill a ticket for polluting the lake.

C: But that’s interesting.

K: (laughs)

C: Fall into the lake. I think somebody moved it into the lake.

K: It was an accident.

C: Yeah, it was an accident.

K: Yeah, but he got a ticket anyway.

C: I’m going to move it out of there.

K: And that’s mommy’s water story, bud.

 

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