Johnny's Adventure in Town

So, today we had only a few hours of electricity and those hours were not all at the same time.

On top of that, I have a dreadful cold. It started yesterday and is progressing very quickly. That may be a good thing, but at the moment all I know is it hurts to breathe.

Lest this stop being Amy’s Assorted Adventures, and more Amy’s Assorted Angst I will now share another story in the Oh, Johnny series.

Today is our usual shopping day. Obviously I was in no condition to go (tiny whine there), so Timmy accompanied Tom and we decided that Johnny should go as well. As I wrote recently in a post, most of our kids have never left our tiny village and hardly even venture much out of our large property. We want to begin showing the kids a ‘whole new world’.

Johnny got up bright and early—all dressed up in the “new pants that Mommy gave me”, and an aura of excitement shimmering from him.

As soon as they began driving, his eyes were wide open and he chattered up a storm.

First, they saw an ant hill.

“What is that, Timmy?”

“That is an ant hill. Termites live in them”.

Right after this, they drove down a stretch of road where there were anthills every few feet.

For about ten minutes it was non-stop: “There’s another one! And another one! And another one!” Timmy said it was like the dog from Dr. Doolittle in the car, “Line…..line….line….line”

Then they hit pot holes! When our Landcruiser goes through potholes it sounds like the car is going to fall to pieces. Every screw and bolt shakes, rattles and rolls. 

“What was that?!?”

“That was a pothole.”

“I don’t like that noise!” 

Of course that didn’t magically make the road smooth, and every time they hit a pot hole Johnny complained, “I don’t like that sound”!

Timmy asked him to just sleep. “But, I’m not tired!”

So, Timmy did the next best thing and went to sleep himself.

Finally they reached Mansa. The potholes and termites were done for the moment but the chatter continued unabated.

**********

At one of their first stops at a hardware store, Johnny noticed trash piled up in the road.

"Why is that trash there? Why isn’t anyone cleaning it up"?

Tom explained that no one wants to do it. 

So, what does little Johnny do? He hails a passing stranger—“Can you clean up the trash?”

When the man just walked on by, Johnny turned to Tom with a completely disappointed look, “He didn’t do it”. 

“I know”, replied Tom, “he’s selfish”.

“Well, then tell the police to make the selfish people clean up the trash”.

***********

After this they went to the grocery store. Here he behaved very well, or at least like a normal kid. He helped load things into the cart—even things we didn’t need--and everything went smoothly.

To make the day more special, Tom took Johnny to the toy aisle and (perhaps foolishly) told him he could have anything he liked. Johnny looked around and almost immediately spotted….a bow and arrow!

Tom tried his best to dissuade him—what about a set of marbles? (No thank you. A bow and arrow) a new truck? (no, just a bow and arrow) a nice set of army men? (no, I’d like the bow and arrow) And so, that’s what he walked out with.

Tune in tomorrow for part two of Johnny's Adventure in Town.

You won't believe what he did next!

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