Holy MACARONI…
Lately Joe has got us all in giggles… especially his writing
bud Caitlin!
22-year-old Caitlin not only works behind the scenes on our
volunteer team as an Editorial Assistant, but also comes to class every week to
help Lea (my fab co-facilitator) and I with, well, everything - from carrying a
toteful the paper and pens to the room, to handwriting for seniors who can’t
physically see or write as they verbally tell their stories. After writing, she
would read out loud the stories she had written on behalf of their senior
authors.
Part of why I love about this story of Joe’s isn’t just that
it is funny, but that Caitlin was so happy when she read it out loud - you can
see it in the photo above. I remember when I snapped that picture that I
realized something: Caitlin’s smile is bigger every week. And Joes’ stories
have everything to do with it.
PS – the other photo here is of Joe, Caitlin, and Marshall
the van driver who we all think is so nice. He comes up to our classroom and
always lets Joe hear one more story or take one more class photo before walking
him downstairs. Most of the time he ends up being our photographer and taking
our class photos for us, but this time we turned the camera around and made him
pose.
Joe Garrison5.23.2013Kids Say the Darnest ThingsI don’t know if I ever told this story before – I hope I didn’t! Back in the 1940s, 50s, they used to broadcast an actual wedding on the radio or the TV called “Here Comes the Bride.” I was 8 or 9 years old, and every time the priest came on, I thought he said, “We join this man and woman in holy macaroni.” And I asked my mom, “Mom what’s macaroni have to do with weddings?” And she said, “No, he said matrimony.” So I learned the meaning of the world at an early age. There was another time when I saw ads for this old headache medicine called BC and they said it came with a secret ingredient called “acetophenetidine.” This was around Christmas so I said, “Mommy, I want a set of Phoenetiga for Christmas!” I thought it was a board game! I thought they gave away board games with medicine, like checkers!It’s so good to hear things clearly now, since if you don’t hear a word clearly you come up with the craziest ideas & assumptions! I think my next story will be about names and what’s in a name, but for now I just want to say God Bless and listen to Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “There’s a Bathroom on the Right.”