The doorbell rang and there she was, Tory, my eight year old friend, with a wonderful gift for me. In her hand she held a beautiful bracelet she had made out of beads. The middle of the bracelet was graced with a butterfly bead and on either side were many shiny turquoise and white beads. The bracelet easily slipped onto my wrist and I wore it with pride the rest of the day, even though I came by the wonderful gift second handed since she had originally taken it to another neighbor who wasn’t home, so she generously decided to bring it to me. I was pleased that she thought so highly of me to consider sharing her labors with me.
Tory is a wonderful girl, very giving and cheerful. We have found common interests arts and crafts and gardening.
An hour was spent with Tory helping me prune some plants and pull dead, spindly growths from other wintering ones. She is such a willing worker. When we are out of town I know I can trust her to feed the stray cat who hangs around our house wanting food but absolutely no physical contact from humans. Tory is always trustworthy.
We talked about our lives as we worked together. She became very interested in my conversation when I told her about some of my writings, which I showed her on my computer.
Our next adventure on that particular day included doing some crafts. We have a mutual interest in creativity and, as Tory labeled herself, she’s very “artable“.
We decided to use leaves, water colors and markers to create a wreath to hang on the door. I save pieces of cardboard for just such occasions, so I dug out a couple of pieces of white cardboard. Tory immediately started in on the feat. I handed her a small glass plate and she instinctively knew to use it to trace a circle to begin the wreath. Being very self sufficient, she began the task of creating a wreath. Her only dilemma was whether to “tie-dye” the colors or to “straight line” the colors with a small craft paint brush. She decided to use both, cutting an oblong piece of cardboard and “straight lining” the letters GOD BLESS on it. You see, we have another common interest, that being God. I was able to tell her that many years ago God first identified himself to men saying, “I AM.” She was a little confused but I hope I cleared it up for her by telling her the story is found in the book of Genesis in the Bible when God told some men, “I AM everything to you.” She quickly agreed.
As we progressed on our creative process, Tory cut leaves in smaller pieces and glued them around the outside of the wreath, having successfully glued the small oblong piece with “God Bless” in the center of the wreath. Tory began to “tie dye” some colors around the God Bless, mixing some colors very effectively.
Suddenly Tory astounded me with a statement. She exclaimed, “That color is the color for Texas.” That piqued my interest since I was born and bred in Texas and I wasn’t familiar with Texas having its own color. It became very clear to me what she meant when I looked at the color that emerged when she combined dark yellow and red water colors. It became burnt orange, the color universally identified as one of the colors of the Longhorns of the University of Texas. She confirmed to me that it certainly is a Longhorns color.
A mystery was solved when I asked Tory, “How in the world does a little eight year old born and bred Okie girl know the colors of the Texas Longhorns?” Her reply was that she had a friend. a boy who was from Texas, and he had moved back after a short time in Oklahoma. She said while he was at her school he wore a Texas Longhorn T shirt one day. It seems the principal, an Oklahoma fan, said he would give something from a current school awards program to the boy to take off the offending burnt orange Texas Longhorn T shirt and only wear the underlying white T shirt. The boy was smart and he agreed to accept the bribe.
However, as Tory related to me, the boy quickly put the Texas Longhorns shirt back on over his white T shirt the minute he left the school yard.
I’ve said many times, you can never take Texas out of a Texan.
Tory overheard me telling someone about her knowledge relating to the team colors of the Longhorns and she suggested that I write a story about it. I told her I would, so I’m keeping my promise. I needed some interesting new subject matter, anyway.
It’s amazing what you can learn from an eight year old. I learned that I’m “artable” and that I can “tie dye” water colors and “straight line” water colors and that eight year old girls remember lots of things they learn from eight year old boys, even college school colors. It’s apparent he was a memorable little boy.
I wish I had known all of the things Tory knows when I was eight years old. It’s never too late to learn amazing things from children, especially ones who are smart as well as “artable“.
Tory is a wonderful girl, very giving and cheerful. We have found common interests arts and crafts and gardening.
An hour was spent with Tory helping me prune some plants and pull dead, spindly growths from other wintering ones. She is such a willing worker. When we are out of town I know I can trust her to feed the stray cat who hangs around our house wanting food but absolutely no physical contact from humans. Tory is always trustworthy.
We talked about our lives as we worked together. She became very interested in my conversation when I told her about some of my writings, which I showed her on my computer.
Our next adventure on that particular day included doing some crafts. We have a mutual interest in creativity and, as Tory labeled herself, she’s very “artable“.
We decided to use leaves, water colors and markers to create a wreath to hang on the door. I save pieces of cardboard for just such occasions, so I dug out a couple of pieces of white cardboard. Tory immediately started in on the feat. I handed her a small glass plate and she instinctively knew to use it to trace a circle to begin the wreath. Being very self sufficient, she began the task of creating a wreath. Her only dilemma was whether to “tie-dye” the colors or to “straight line” the colors with a small craft paint brush. She decided to use both, cutting an oblong piece of cardboard and “straight lining” the letters GOD BLESS on it. You see, we have another common interest, that being God. I was able to tell her that many years ago God first identified himself to men saying, “I AM.” She was a little confused but I hope I cleared it up for her by telling her the story is found in the book of Genesis in the Bible when God told some men, “I AM everything to you.” She quickly agreed.
As we progressed on our creative process, Tory cut leaves in smaller pieces and glued them around the outside of the wreath, having successfully glued the small oblong piece with “God Bless” in the center of the wreath. Tory began to “tie dye” some colors around the God Bless, mixing some colors very effectively.
Suddenly Tory astounded me with a statement. She exclaimed, “That color is the color for Texas.” That piqued my interest since I was born and bred in Texas and I wasn’t familiar with Texas having its own color. It became very clear to me what she meant when I looked at the color that emerged when she combined dark yellow and red water colors. It became burnt orange, the color universally identified as one of the colors of the Longhorns of the University of Texas. She confirmed to me that it certainly is a Longhorns color.
A mystery was solved when I asked Tory, “How in the world does a little eight year old born and bred Okie girl know the colors of the Texas Longhorns?” Her reply was that she had a friend. a boy who was from Texas, and he had moved back after a short time in Oklahoma. She said while he was at her school he wore a Texas Longhorn T shirt one day. It seems the principal, an Oklahoma fan, said he would give something from a current school awards program to the boy to take off the offending burnt orange Texas Longhorn T shirt and only wear the underlying white T shirt. The boy was smart and he agreed to accept the bribe.
However, as Tory related to me, the boy quickly put the Texas Longhorns shirt back on over his white T shirt the minute he left the school yard.
I’ve said many times, you can never take Texas out of a Texan.
Tory overheard me telling someone about her knowledge relating to the team colors of the Longhorns and she suggested that I write a story about it. I told her I would, so I’m keeping my promise. I needed some interesting new subject matter, anyway.
It’s amazing what you can learn from an eight year old. I learned that I’m “artable” and that I can “tie dye” water colors and “straight line” water colors and that eight year old girls remember lots of things they learn from eight year old boys, even college school colors. It’s apparent he was a memorable little boy.
I wish I had known all of the things Tory knows when I was eight years old. It’s never too late to learn amazing things from children, especially ones who are smart as well as “artable“.
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