[0:00]
Welcome to Boxcar English
Where there’s always room for you.
My name is Karl. It’s good to see you again.
I’ve got a new story to tell… part two of an old story.
[0:36]
So, this is the next part of episode 52: Postcards from Janet. It’s about how my cousin Janet and her two kids came to stay at my house. Heres what happened.
So you know, I live in Tennessee, and Janet and her two kids live in Minnesota. Those places are far, far apart.
[1:04]
So Janet has two daughters – two girls. Buddy is six years old, and Eddie is four. Eddie and Buddy are named after rock and roll stars from the 1950s (Eddie Cochran and Buddy Holly). Janet loves rock and roll music, you see. In fact, rock and roll music is why she’s coming to visit. She’s a musician who plays rock and roll music. She plays the guitar and the drums and also sings all at the same time. Her band name is Planet Janet.
[1:45]
So, Janet was going to play music at a festival in Goosewillow, which is about an hour’s drive away, and I would stay with Buddy and Eddie. I had a plan: I was going to take them out to the playground – there’s a great playground in Haytown, by the river – and get pizza from a pizza truck that’s always set up there on Fridays.
[2:13]
Well, they came over on Friday morning, and it was a beautiful day. I was cleaning up the house when I heard Shelby barking. I looked out the window and saw a green station wagon parking in front of my house. Janet was in the front, the kids were in the middle, and I could see what looked like a drum set in the very back.
[2:43]
They all got out, with Janet holding a bunch of keys, Buddy, the six-year-old holding a bag full of colored pencils, and Eddy holding a soft doll that looked like Frankenstein’s monster. She came up to me first and held the doll up high and said, “Frankenstein.” Shelby was wagging her tail and was very excited.
[3:09]
It was really great to see them all – I showed them around. They were going to sleep in my bed, and I was going to sleep on the couch. (I like sleeping on the couch sometimes). They saw my little cat, Pink, and I showed them the string with a bright red feather on the end that Pink likes to play with. The kids called me “Uncle Karl.” It made me feel really proud to be called that, even though I’m technically not their uncle.
[3:45]
They were really excited about going to the playground and having pizza, and didn’t mind saying goodbye to their mom, who went to play her concert. When she left, however, I noticed that the sun was covered by clouds. And soon, I heard a rumbling sound, like thunder. I looked out the window, and there were flashes of lightning in the sky. And then, all of a sudden, it started pouring rain.
[4:19]
Shelby ran to hide under the bed, and Buddy and Eddie seemed really sad, and even a little scared about being in an unfamiliar place. Eddie was holding her Frankenstein doll really tight. I didn’t know what to do, but I had to think of something.
[4:40]
And then I remembered something. One day, Janet’s dad, who was my Uncle Jerry, came to visit us in Tennessee. Uncle Jerry loved to play golf, you see, and he was going to play golf that day, but it was raining. And Janet and I were going to go play in our play house in the yard, but we couldn’t go outside either. And then, Uncle Jerry had a great idea: he found some plastic cups in the kitchen. He got a golf club and a golf ball. He put the (clu-) cups down on the floor, on their sides, so the openings were facing out, and he set these cups all over the living room, and then, he showed us how to hit the golf balls into the plastic cups.
[5:39]
I remember Uncle Jerry laughing the whole time and smoking cigarettes. That’s when people smoked inside. He played music on the radio, and I remember hearing that song, “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” Uncle Jerry liked old rock and roll music, just like Janet. We would dance to the music together. There were the sounds of drums and saxophones, thunder outside, rain on the roof, and the tapping of golf balls into the cups. It was a really fun day, and I never forgot it. So I decided to try to do the same thing.
[6:19]
“Do you girls know how to play golf?” I asked Buddy and Eddie. “Uh-uh” said Buddy. I found that Buddy said “Uh-uh” for “No” the whole time she’d been here. “What’s goff?” said Eddie. “Golf?” I said. “I’ll show you.” We went down to the basement together, where I have some of my dad’s old golf clubs.
[6:46]
There were some old plastic cups from baseball games down there, too. I grabbed a few of those plastic cups from baseball games and brought them upstairs, and I set one down on the living room floor, on its side, just like Uncle Jerry had done. And then I looked at Buddy and Eddie and said, “You try hit the ball in there.” I put the golf ball on the floor, picked up a golf club, and tapped the the ball into the cup.
[7:26]
Buddy immediately said, “I want to try!” I gave her the club and she hit the ball in the cup. And then Eddie said, “Can I try?” Buddy gave her the club and Eddie put her Frankenstein doll under her arm as she held it. The golf club was even taller than she was, a little bit, and, so it wasn’t easy for her.
[7:52]
But she swung the club – without hitting the ball. She swung again and hit the ball very, very softly. It barely moved. She laughed. “This is fun,” she said. “Try again,” I said. This time she hit the ball really hard. She hit the ball so hard it made a dent in the wall. Shelby barked at the sound. “Whoa!” I said. “That’s a little too hard!” Eddie and Buddy were laughing. In a minute, I started laughing too.
[8:30]
I started playing some music – “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” by the Tokens. I wasn’t surprised that Buddy and Eddie already knew the song and started to sing along…
[8:45]
A few other things broke that day, but it didn’t matter. We still had pizza, I just ordered one to be delivered. We had a great time. And I kept thinking about Uncle Jerry, how much I missed that good man, and how glad I was to see Janet, and her daughters, and how one day, these girls might play golf inside on a rainy day with some little kids, maybe long after I’ve passed away…
[9:17]
That’s all for today, my pals.
Thanks for listening to Boxcar English
Where there’s always room for you.
[9:34]