The Folkstories of Children

Nine Years

Nzene Years Jerome 1. 2/7/74 Once upon a time there was a boy named Jerome and he was walking down the street and he saw his friend that wasn't in school for a week and his name was Miles, and he was playing with my brother. When I was coming back from school, 'cause my brother didn't go to school that day. So I started playing with them. We were playing tag. It was fun and then Miles had to go home. We walked Miles home and the next day we were going on a camping trip and I went and it was for four days. We had a good time and they served us in bed. Then the next day we went home and there was no school that day 'cause it was Lincoln's birthday. And the Saturday and Sunday passed by and I rode my bike in Central Park and me and my brother and my father came back home on our bikes and that was the best time of that year. That I had in 1974. And it was fun and on Sunday we rode our bikes again and we came home and that's the end. 263 PLOT STORIES 2. 2/28/74 Once upon a time I was walking in the woods and I saw this thing and it had sharp fingernails, eyeballs made out of blubber, bony fingers, skinny legs and fat body. And I was running and it was chasing me and I saw another one and I was surrounded by a whole bunch of them and I ran through one and it looked ugly inside. And I kept on running and all of them had clubs and spikes and they were throwing spikes at me and one hit me on the head. And I almost forgot about all those monsters in back of me. And then I started running faster and faster and then I saw my brother and I told him to run and then I woke up. It was all a dream. [Storytaker asked him if this was a story or a dream, and he answered that it was really a story and not a real dream.] 3. 6/14/74 Once upon a time there was a cow and a dog and a lamb and a sheep and horses. And there was a farmer and that's a farm. And there was a boy walking down the street to the farm and the boy, he went on the horse. The farmer said he could go on the horse and he go a ride and he had fun and that's the end. No. And he went all the way to the barn and he got another ride to the World Trade Center. And then the horse got to eat and the horse liked his food. And the next day the boy got a ride again. And he liked the horse and the man gave it to him for one hundred twenty-five dollars. And so when him and his horse they ride, sometimes they went to far places. They went all the way out to New Jersey because they lived in the country and stuff and the horse ate all his hay and they lived happily ever after. The end. 4. 9/3/74: The Monster Once upon a time there was a boy. He lived in the country. And one day he went out in the woods and saw a big monster. And he started running as fast as he could. And the monster only came out every six years. A lot of people got killed from that monster. Then the boy went over and told the police and the police went out to try and find the monster. They couldn't find the monster and they thought the boy was only kidding about the monster because the police were from the city. They didn't know the monster came down every six years. And then the monster came in the village in the country and was killing everybody. And someone got the police again and the monster went back in the woods. The police 264 NINE YEARS didn't believe there was a monster and they planted a bomb in the woods and the monster died and the village went on fire and everybody died. Some people lived, but that's the end of the story. Jonathan 1. 1/16/74 Once...