Day 8 of our 31 Letters Literacy Project is about making up our minds!

As adults, we’re always telling our kids, “Make up your mind!”… whether it’s about an outfit to wear, a book or toy or movie or game to choose, a hairstyle, a radio station to listen to, or something as simple as what snack to eat.

Do we forget what it was like to be a kid?

Our kids and grandkids and ALL kids love to hear stories about when we were kids. It gives us common ground.  Why not give them the gift of your childhood in letters… 31 in all.  31 Letters in March to share, to read, to cherish.  There is no better way to increase LITERACY than to give your children WORDS.

Today’s letter topic is about making up your mind… inspired by a little poem by Richard Wright that we bumped into on Day 8 of 365 Days of Literacy for Kids:

Make up your mind snail!
You are half inside your house
And halfway out!

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This is my letter to my grandchildren about this make up your mind thing:

Dear _________________,

Hi, my little darlings!  You know how you sometimes can’t make up your mind about something, for any of a number of reasons, and your parents are saying, “Make up your mind!” The make up your mind thing is always, always about being in a hurry.  Parents always seem to be in a hurry for something.

Well, when I was a kid, things weren’t so different.  We didn’t have all the fast, high-tech stuff we have today, but parents and other grown-ups back then seemed to have lots of things on their minds, too… and us dilly-dallying kids always got in the way of those important things.

One of the make up your mind things in my life didn’t come from my parents, but from one of those other grown-ups.   My friend’s Dad, actually.  He wasn’t mean or anything like that… it’s just that I wasn’t fast enough doing something, and he had to “help” me make up my mind.

My friend’s name was Debbie.  She lived next door to me.  We were 11 years old, or so, and Debbie’s parents invited me to lots of places.  Debbie was an only child.  (Well, she had a much older brother who lived far away… so she was pretty much an only child.)  Debbie’s parents went out to dinner A LOT.  (My parents hardly ever took my brothers and me out to dinner… it was too expensive.)

Anyway, one night Debbie’s parents invited me to a very nice restaurant in the town next to ours.  I passed that restaurant every Sunday on our way to church, every time we had to get onto the highway, every time I went to my dancing lessons, and lots of other times.  The restaurant was Lamie’s Tavern.  In fact, the restaurant is still in that town and it’s still called Lamie’s Tavern.  Lamie’s was the most fancy restaurant I had ever seen, and I never thought I’d actually eat there.  The problem was, I wasn’t prepared for the choices on the menu…

SO, I sat there staring at the choices, reading each one and trying to figure out what everything was.  Debbie’s parents were chatting away and Debbie seemed to know what she wanted.  Debbie had lots of experience at eating out.  I guess I was too embarrassed to ask what some of the things on the menu were.  The waitress came over and Debbie and her parents ordered while I just stared at the menu.  Debbie’s father finally said to me, “Do you know what you want?”

I didn’t.

He said, “How about the filet of sole?”

I had been staring at that filet of sole thing, wondering if it had anything to do with shoes.  Why would there be shoes on the menu?  You  know… the sole thing.  And what was a filet?  (Pronounced FILL-AY, but in my head, I was pronouncing it FILL-IT.)

Debbie’s father asked if I liked “this” and “that” and “those things” on the menu.

I didn’t know. I didn’t know what most of the stuff was.  But I didn’t say anything.

Finally, the words came… “Well,” Debbie’s father said, “you’d better make up your mind.“

Uh, oh. He wasn’t impatient or angry or agitated or fretful, but definitely in that grown-up hurry kind of way for me to decide what I wanted for dinner.

I pointed to the filet of sole. Shoes, I thought.

When the meal came, I realized that sole is fish. Not shoes after all.  The filet of sole was a thin slice of fish rolled up with some stuffing inside.  Problem was… I didn’t like fish.

But by that time, I didn’t dare not eat it.  I took my fork and cut the tiniest piece possible.

Debbie’s parents were still chatting away.  Debbie was all involved with her meal and talking to me, too.  I didn’t hear a thing she was saying.  I tasted the filet of sole, expecting to detest it.  Turns out, it was delicious! Exactly the meal I had imagined getting in that beautiful, grown-up restaurant if I ever got lucky enough to dine there.

Debbie’s father had kind of made me make up my mind.  It turned out to be a good thing!

The next time a grown-up tells you to make up your mind, think of my filet of shoes… I mean, sole!  Sometimes making up your mind can turn out pretty good!

Love you forever and ever (and I have made up my mind about that!),
Grandma Couto

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I must tell you that my grandchildren are LOVING my letters.  My husband is writing his 31 Letters, too.  I’ve had the best conversations about some of the things I’ve written to the kids about my childhood.  It really is a LITERACY PROJECT!

Continue today.  Or begin today. Get those letters into the mailboxes and into your kids’ hands and hearts!

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MAIL TIDBIT of the DAY:  Before postage stamps were developed in the 1840’s, ink and hand stamps were used.  These stamps were often made from wood or cork.