MAGICAL SOAP

Nathan's Green Apple Collage "age 9"

Gramps and I are firm believers in preventing night leg cramps by putting a bar of soap under the fitted sheet in our bed. We both keep a bar of soap on our side of the bed. We even carry two bars of soap with us when we travel and place them in the beds in motel rooms and in beds where we visit. We've forgotten to retrieve them and have left them as calling cards in many motel rooms. I know the maids have wondered what in the world they are doing in the beds. Our relatives understand us and just save the soap that we leave in their beds until our next visits. We really never doubted that it works and we've told our own children about it many times. They probably think we're loony, but we don't question success. We rarely have leg cramps at night now, where we used to have them all the time. Not long ago when we were visiting California our precious grandson Nathan sprained his ankle skateboarding. He had a hard time getting up the stairs of their house leading to his bedroom but he finally did, grimacing in pain all the way. I fixed an ice pack for him and took it upstairs to his room and placed it on the affected ankle, which was beginning to swell. We were all going to take an important trip the next day and Nathan wanted to make sure that the ankle would be well so he wouldn't be hampered. Nathan asked me in a pitiful, woeful voice, "Grandma, do you think if I put a bar of soap on my ankle or put one under my sheet that it will make my sprained ankle get well faster?" There's one person who believes in the magical bar of soap that we use. I assured him that a bar of soap under the sheet is only good for leg cramps. Now that I think about it, I wish Nathan and I had tried it. We might have discovered a new cure for a sprained ankle. Athletes everywhere would have been grateful to Nathan for the discovery. Grandchildren believe everything we say so be careful what you discuss around them. By the way, Gramps' brother says that the reason grandparents and grandchildren get along so well together is they have a common enemy. Truer words were never spoken!