Jack and His Magic Beans...and the Tale of the Bike with Two Different Tires, etc

I decided on the name of this blog, as the content reminded me of the old fairytale: Jack and the Beanstalk. Remember, Jack's mother sent him off with the last of their money to buy a little food and he returned with Magic Beans? Well, I was thinking of modern day applications of the tale. My daughter, Jennifer told me that all summer, the neighbor kid's bike has been sitting in her garage. Her son's bike was over at the same neighbor kid's house. She nagged and nagged him to get his bike. He came up with various excuses--They were out of town, not home, etc. Finally, she just told him to take the neighbor kid's bike home and come back with his own bike. She told me that the neighbor kid's bike had sat untouched and safe in their garage. Toughie looked up at his mom and solemnly told her he couldn't bring his bike home as it was missing a tire! She told him she didn't care what it was missing, bring it home. A while later, he returned with a bike with a flat tire and two tires that did not match. At least the bike was home, and she figured that was the end of the drama. Not so. She called Toughie last night on her cell phone that she had give him and told him to come home. He asked her if she could come and pick him up. She informed him he had his bike, and to come home immediately. That is when he informed her that he had parked the bike in front of his friend's door, and it was no longer there. She said she'd be right over to get him, and he was grounded. She picked Toughie up, and he yelled, "Hey, look mom, there is my bike!" Laying in some bushes in the park by her house, there was the bike--two different tires and obviously, it was Toughie's. He looked at his mom and asked, "Am I still grounded? After all, we did find the bike!" I do believe the child is grounded.

When Toughie's mother was barely five years old, I had spent quite a sum of money (under $10, but a lot for our income at the time) on some little cosmetics for her for her birthday. We lived in a neighborhood with quite a few rentals and there was this WAY older girl that had invited herself to Jennifer's fifth birthday party....and I do believe "cased" the house. A week or so after Jennifer's birthday, she brought out this old broken and used compact, and a used woman's red lipstick, and told me she wanted her make up back. The older girl had "traded" her for it soon after her birthday. We had a little discussion, but it was really hard for her to understand that her make up was gone. I really had to keep a close eye on the neighbor girl, as she was out for whatever she could get.

Back a generation before my daughter, I remember my mother buying these wonderful little cars for one of my brothers. Oh, they were great. There were two car "chassis" with motors, etc, and there were five interchangeable bodies. I was pretty jealous. He took them over to a neighbor kid's house and later my mother discovered he had "traded" his new wonderful cars for two Matchbox type repainted, dented little cars. It took most of the day, but she managed to get his wonderful little cars back.

Well, Jack's beans were indeed magic, and he stole the golden goose and magic harp from the giant, chopped down the beanstalk, killed the giant and Jack and his mother lived happily ever after, I suppose. I prefer fairy tales or folk tales with a moral or lesson to be learned. I think what Jennifer, my mother and I wish, is our children would take care of their possessions, value them, and not be taken in by people with stories of Magic beans, better bikes, different cars, etc. I think we all need to be careful not to be taken in by unscrupulous people. We need to value our gifts and not squander them.